


Dipper and Wendy: The right time to kiss 💋

by GingerJane



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bring back Gravity Falls, Christmas Kisses, Consensual Underage Sex, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Flirty Wendy, Foreplay, Forward Wendy, Gravity Falls - Freeform, Happy Ending, Have to build romance before smut, It's ok it's fiction, Love Confessions, Mature Dipper, Mutual Pining, Older Dipper Pines, Please don't judge me, Post-Gravity Falls, Romantic Fluff, Sexy Wendy, Shy Dipper Pines, Spooky, Teen Wendy Corduroy, Wendip, Witch Curses, crushes to lovers, kinda slow burn?, smut is coming, teen Dipper Pines, you were warned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-23 23:08:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30062985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerJane/pseuds/GingerJane
Summary: Over the years, Dipper and Wendy's relationship develops and the age gap looks a lot smaller. 💋💋💋😻❤️🔥:. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :. :.Dipper slanted his mouth over hers....This is it. I’m really kissing her. And ooohhhhh…. she tastes…His eyes rolled back in his head as his fingers dug deeper into her hair. He could feel everything… her strands of hair soft between his fingers… his heart beating ten times faster than it ever has… her warm lips sliding under his… her tongue sliding across the seam of his barely parted mouth…She moans gently below him and his erection hears it loud and clear.
Relationships: Wendy Corduroy & Dipper Pines, Wendy Corduroy/Dipper Pines, dipper/wendy
Comments: 45
Kudos: 14





	1. Dipper and Mabel hit a growth spurt

**Author's Note:**

> I've always loved the idea of Dipper and Wendy getting together when they're older. The characters and universe are owned by Disney. I only wrote this version of events that happened after the series ended. 
> 
> I hope you like it! Please comment if you have any ideas that you want to see in future chapters! I will try to respond to them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick snapshot into years gone by as Dipper and Wendy grow up and closer together.

Summer 2012  
Age at the end of summer:  
Dipper and Mabel: 13  
Wendy: 15

Dipper’s Perspective:  
I was 12-years-old when I met Wendy Corduroy. She was a 15-year-old red-headed goddess of beauty. Over the summer, I developed a serious crush on her and accidentally confessed my feelings. I actually thought I was in love with her, but I’m sure it was just a stupid kid crush.

Wendy knew that. She’s really smart like that. When I told her, she let me down easy and I realized I had to move on. I've been trying to be happy being “just friends” ever since.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -

Summer 2013  
Age at the end of summer:  
Dipper and Mabel: 14  
Wendy: 16

Wendy’s Perspective:  
After that big 13th birthday bash for the Pines twins, a lot happened in Gravity Falls over the next year.

Soos took over the Mystery Shack, and his girlfriend Melody helps him when she’s in town visiting. Stan and Ford are gone on adventures a lot, but promise to come home every summer to watch the Pines twins.

I dated a guy named Tristen for a month, but it was basically only because he had a driver’s license. But we quickly broke up after he got arrested for grand theft auto. He left town to move in with a cousin or something and I haven’t seen him since.

I didn't see Dipper and Mabel again until the next summer. It was a week after my sixteenth birthday and I really didn't feel different. But boy did the Pines twins change!

\- - - - - - - - - - - -

Soos told her when they’d be coming in, so she was super stoked when she got to work that morning. She made sure to wear Dipper’s blue pine hat too.

Walking through the door to the Mystery Shack, Wendy saw a girl with long brown hair and a galaxy sweater sitting on top of the register.

“Mabel! Welcome back!”

Mabel’s face spun towards Wendy to reveal a smile without braces and a pretty face framed with handmade earrings.

“WENDY! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH WENDY! I missed you!” She jumped off the counter, sprinted to the door, and wrapped her in a bear hug. That’s when Wendy noticed how much she grew.

“Girl, look at you. You’re so tall. What did you grow a foot?”

Last year, she came up to about her shoulder. But now, she proudly beamed up at Wendy from a bit taller than Wendy's mouth.

“Pffft, no. Not even close to a foot. But hey! I got my ears pierced, SEE??”

“Dude, it looks grea-”

“But, Wendy, you’re SIXTEEN NOW!” Mabel was so excited that she started interrupting and talking faster than needed. “The sweet sixteen. Oh please tell me you had a sweet sixteen party. What was it like? Was there dancing? Were there boys? Did you kiss anyone?”

“I’ll be right there, Ham Bone. I’m finishing unloading this box. Keep an eye on the register, hey?” Wendy heard Soos call from the back room.

“You got it,” Wendy called before turning back to Mabel. “No, nothing like that. I just went to a concert with my fam.”

Mabel’s face turned into a dramatic pout. “Ohhh. But- but do you feel any different?”

“Mmm. Not really.”

“Don’t you feel like a woman now?” The girl's round nose was wrinkling under concentration.

“Nah.” When Mabel’s face fell even more, Wendy added, “Well, I mean... I guess Tambry convinced me to wear some makeup more often…?”

However, Wendy usually only bothered with eyeliner and some light blush. Which is what she was wearing today.

Regardless, Mabel shined with admiration, cupping the redhead’s cheeks in her hands. “Oooo you’re glowing. You’re like a model.”

At this, Wendy blushed. She knew she was pretty average and she didn’t get compliments often. But Mabel’s flattery boosted her confidence.

“Haha, thanks.”

“And your boobs got bigger!” Mabel’s face was beyond excited.

Wendy’s face was beyond shocked. Wendy tugged her beige camisole down, quickly glanced down at her figure, and then back up.

 _A bit bold, Mabel?_ But Wendy soon chuckled when Mabel placed her hands over her sweater to cup her own developing chest.

“Mine are so tiny,” she sighed. “But you have that hourglass shape my health teacher told us about.”

Wendy’s face got redder, but she smiled at Mabel’s blunt honesty and looked down at her chest.

“Um, yeah…. I guess they got a little bit bigger. I had to go up a cup size,” Wendy said, placing her hands under her round breasts and squeezing.

“Uh-h-h,” an unfamiliar male voice stuttered from across the room. Wendy looked up to see a quite lanky boy wearing her old lumberjack hat. Dipper was blushing a deep red in the doorway.

He was at least an inch taller than Mabel, with long skinny arms and legs. He had also acquired a somewhat shorter-style haircut. 

Wendy’s eyes found his face and noticed he was staring intently at her hands, which were still fondling her own breasts.

 _Oops_.

“Dipper! Wendy’s here!” Mabel jumped up and down and rushed for her brother.

Wendy took that as her cue to drop her hands, shake it off, and follow the brunette to her brother.

“Uh, hi, uh, Wendy.” He shook out of his staring and was looking down at the floor, red as a beet. He gave her a weak wave. Apparently, his voice had finally stopped cracking over last year and deepened a bit too.

“Come ‘mere, dude!” She unhesitantly wrapped her arms around him and squeezed his warm form to her body.

When he didn’t hug her back, she squeezed tighter and swayed back and forth a bit. “Come on. Don’t tell me you’re too old for hugs now,” she teased.

She felt him chuckle and awkwardly pat his arms around her back. Suddenly, he cleared his throat, released her, and backed away from the hug pelvis first.

“Hi.” he said again, peeking up at her.

She took a step closer to him and smiled. “Hey, you kept my hat safe. Thanks very much.”

Dipper’s face shifted to worry when she pulled the hat off of his head. But soon his brown hair was covered again with his own old pine hat.

“I’ll take over again for the summer,” she said. “But then you have to take the next shift at the end of August again, okay?”

As the redhead smiled widely down at him, Dipper let out a small contented sigh and grinned.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -

Dipper’s Perspective:

I was 13-years-old when I completely lost control of my hormones and Wendy caught me staring at her chest. It was right when I saw her again at the beginning of summer too. She probably hates me now.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -

Tease for the next chapter:  
Christmas 2013

Wendy’s Perspective:

I was 16-years-old when I was kissed by a 14-year-old.


	2. Her kiss feels so warm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting a little heated here... Dipper and Wendy have their first kiss. 😯🥰
> 
> Please leave me comments or suggestions about things you'd like to see in future chapters! Or just let me know if you liked anything!

Christmas 2013

Wendy’s Perspective:

I was 16-years-old when I was kissed by a 14-year-old.

The Pines twins had come to Gravity Falls for their Christmas break. We were all hanging out at Stan’s house after lunch, watching old Christmas movies on his “new” couch. The police station got new furniture and Stan snagged one of their old couches out of the garbage. It's in his living room and now there was finally room for everyone, and no one had to sit on the floor.

Ford was in the basement working on experiments. He said he never understood the big deal over Christmas movies.

Everyone else was huddled under Mabel-made blankets (our Christmas presents), sipping from Mabel-made peppermint mochas.

Everyone who usually shared a couch, ended up sharing a blanket. Mabel and waddles shared a blanket. Soos had his own blanket. Stan didn't use a blanket. And Dipper huddled under a blanket with me.

We were listening to Mabel babbel on about her new active dating life, when the power went out.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -

“All right, you kids stay put,” Stan’s gravely voice said. “Dipper! Go outside and check the circuit breaker!”

“Uggh!” Dipper grumbled as he scooted out from under the snowman fleece. 

His leg stopped pressing against mine and I immediately felt the loss of body heat.

"Hurry up, dude. I'm already getting cold without you," I complain sarcastically, snuggling my shoulders deeper under the blanket.

He glanced back my way with an awkward smile before shoving his arms in his coat. A few moments later we heard a man-child haller and curse at the top of his lungs outside.

 _Did he just curse?_ Wendy thought.

 _I didn't know he even knew that word. Huh, guess he's growing up. Kinda naughty there, Dipper. It's_ _kind of a turn on when he loses his temper…_

_Wait what? Where did that come from? **No**. Bad weird random sexual thought in my brain. Focus. We need to see if Dipper's ok._

“Dipper!” Mabel squealed, rushing outside in her Ducktective slippers to save her brother.

The rest of the gang tumbled out behind her, Stan bringing a coat for Mabel, and found Dipper hunched over on the side of the shack. He was holding his hand to his head.

“What happened?” Stan demanded.

Mabel hugged her brother tightly while Wendy knelt in the snow next to him and tried to look at his head.

“Some jerky gnomes came out of the woods and threw that Christmas ornament at my head.”

He held up a hand and pointed to a crudely made wooden Santa with abnormally large hands. The Santa was holding a scroll of paper.

“Woah, creepy," Wendy muttered.

Wendy grabbed the Santa and unrolled the paper, reading it out loud.

_“Dear Helpless Victim Reading this Paper,_

_You are now DOOMED. DOOMED beyond all chance of happiness or Christmas cheer. I have stolen something that belongs to you. You'll never possess it again without my help._

_Trust me when I say it is something you cannot LIVE WITHOUT._

_I’ll give it back to you in an exchange... Only the lips in the promise of the Mountain Ash tree can set you free. Follow the gnomes carrying my insignia to make the exchange._

_You have until sundown until the crippling curse takes full effect. The longer you wait, the worse your fate._

_Signed,_   
_Your Future”_

“AHH! CURSED? No, we better get OUT of here, dudes!” Soos yelled and ran back in the Shack.

When Wendy finished reading, her fingers were clutching the paper and a strange cooling sensation was climbing through her blood, creeping up her stomach.

_A crippling curse? Something you can't live without?_

"What a bunch of hooey," Stan hollered. "Just an empty threat by someone not even willing to challenge you face to face."

"No, we _have_ to go!" Mabel yelled. "We can't let Dipper stay cursed."

"Curses? Ha! No curse can hold a Pines man back. Just rub some dirt on it, Dipper." Stan made his way back inside grumbling.

Wendy gently pushed Dipper’s fingers aside with hers to see better. When her warm fingers touched his chilled ones, he froze, hand hovering mid-air.

Wendy didn’t notice and was moving pieces of hair to see the scalp, looking for blood or bruising.

"Come on, Dipper,” Mabel whined. “We gotta find this "Ashes tree" and then make whoever did this to you fix it. Are you ok? Do you feel cursed?"

Dipper cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Wendy’s foot, sitting in the snow a few inches away from his. He was trying not to think about the warm fingertips still grazing his scalp. The warm fingertips that were so soft and belonged to the girl of his dreams.

"I'm- f-fine. I think. I mean- uh- my head hurts, but I think that's from the wooden block. I might have some bruising over my parietal bone, but nothing serious. I don’t think I need to worry about a mild traumatic brain injury. But, Mabel, we can’t discern anything concrete about this menace. It could even be a bluff or a trap."

"But what if it's not, bro bro. We have to. We can't risk it!"

Usually Mabel's perspective puts extra emphasis on drama, but this time Wendy felt compelled to agree. Something in her gut was telling her they had to talk to this person before sun down.

Wendy put her hand on Dipper's knee, which he pointedly looked at.

"I agree with Mabel. We shouldn't risk it. Let's just find this jerk and kick his butt!"

"Yeah!"

"Well..." Dipper lifted his head and noticed Wendy's face was a lot closer than he thought it was.

"Come on, man. We have to take care of you."

Dipper swallowed, then nodded minutely. "Alright. But let's bring supplies and find this thing we have to trade. These tree lips."

Wendy nodded and shoved the creepy note in her pocket.

Once they were all packed and changed into warm dry clothes, they sneaked out of the house and into the forest. After a couple hours of hiking uphill through a foot of snow, they finally stumbled upon a group of promising looking trees. They were fat, round, and covered with small red berries.

“We found them, the Mountain Ash trees,” Dipper said, comparing the trees to a page in his forest dendrology book.

And thank goodness they did, because Wendy felt like her brain was on fire. Her head was swarming and she could feel her rebel heartbeat.

_Am I dehydrated? What’s wrong with me? Am I just extra tired because I’m on my period?_

She weakly propped herself against a tree and sucked all the water out of one of her water bottles.

_Dry. Her lips were so dry._

“I don’t see any lips,” Mabel complained, marching up to the tree with her arms crossed.

Dipper walked back and forth examining the trees, chewing the end of his pen. “Maybe we’ll find something if we can scrutinize the branches. Wendy, can I borrow that rope you brought?”

As soon as his face turned her direction, his brown eyes got wide. He pattered a few steps towards Wendy.

“Hey, are you ok? You look flushed.”

Wendy’s vision was a bit disorientated as she watched Dipper’s hand hesitantly grab her wrist and flip it over. He placed two fingers over her veins and froze for a few seconds.

“I’m, yeah, I’m alright. Sorry, guys. Just haven’t adventured in a while, I guess?” She let her thumb absent-mindedly brush back and forth over the hand propping hers up.

“Your pulse is a little slow,” Dipper’s warm voice muttered, staring at his watch. Because of course he had an old-fashioned watch with a second hand. His brown eyes lifted to her face and it made her pause. “Do you need to take a break?”

She felt herself slowly smile. She felt a little loopy, but it’s nothing she couldn’t shake off. Stupid period. “Nope. No, sir Dr. Pines. I’m good.”

He raised an eyebrow at the title. So cutely.

“Rope’s in my backpack. I just need to catch my breath.”

Dipper looked at her eyes for a moment longer. - _Probably seeing if my pupils are dilated. Since when does he know so much medical stuff?_ \- But then, as if suddenly realizing he was still touching her, he dropped her wrist and cleared his throat.

“Ok- uh. Yeah. Right, so let’s- um-”

“Hey! What about this!” Mabel squealed. She had already retrieved the rope, climbed partway up a tree and was holding red berries in her hand.

“These kind of look like lips! You know, like red lips with lipstick on, puckered up like this?” She pouted her lips in an air kiss. “This must be what that cooky letter was talking about.”

She brought them down for Dipper to look at and he shrugged. “Well, it’s not perfect, but I don’t see anything else it could be. And I don’t want to waste any more time. We still have to find this creep Now where’s the-”

“BAH! LET GO OF MY HAIR, YOU JERKS!” Wendy screeched and drop kicked a gnome, while another was aggressively pulling at her pant legs. She quickly pulled her hatchet out of her tool belt and used the butt to thump the gnome’s head.

“Hey, get off of her!” Mabel charged, arms flailing, with Dipper close behind.

Once the gnomes here bruised and huddled on the ground, Dipper crowded over them.

“Get out of here!”

“We are the hand messengers,” one said, rubbing his elbow. His voice was crackly, like alligator skin. “We carry the hand insignia.”

“Hand- messengers?”

The two short gnomes dressed in red held up large medallions that hung around their necks. The medallions were brown hands.

“That’s the symbol that was on that death note,” Wendy muttered.

“Wait- hand messengers? Hand insignia?” Mabel gasped dramatically and pointed an angry finger at the gnomes. “You’re working for the hand witch!”

“Yes, the mistress hand witch told us to lead the cursed one to her, to make an exchange for the thing which you cannot live without.”

“Rrrr!” Dipper gruffed in frustration. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why would the hand witch curse me? We left on good terms!”

“Yeah, I made her cave beautiful!”

“We are but hand messengers,” their slimy little voices said. “Follow us to the hand witch for the answers you seek.”

Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy looked at each other cautiously before Mabel sighed.

“Fine, we’ll go to your stupid hand witch. But I’m giving her a piece of my mind when I get there!” Mabel balled her fists and stomped after the gnomes.

After another hour of hiking, was it an hour? Two hours? How far away was this cave? Wendy didn’t know. It was taking forever and she felt so.. so… sleepy…. The sun was lower in the winter sky when she finally saw the edge of a cave.

The hand witch cackled from inside the came before her hand throne carried her out. She looked just as green and clammy as they remembered her.

“There you are, my cursed love. I’ve been waiting for-” She looked down to see the angry faces of Dipper, Wendy and Mabel staring back at her.

“Hey, what are you doing here? Where’s my cursed love?” her scratchy old hag voice said. She looked crossly at the gnomes. “Why did you bring me these guys?”

The room lit by hand-elabras started spinning in Wendy’s eyes and she shakely sat down on a clammy boulder.

“Because you cursed me!” Dipper yelled. “One of your minions hucked a Santa at my head and it had a threatening note with it. What gives?”

Wendy’s panting got heavier and heavier and she felt herself slink forward. She felt, so heavy. Everything was heavy. The air was heavy. Her hair was heavy. Her skin was heavy. She tried to open her mouth to say something, but the witch yelled over her.

“OH, you stupid fools!” she barked at the gnomes, throwing a disembodied hand at them as they scampered away. “I told you to get my love note to a hunky man, not some nerdy teenager.”

_THUD._

Wendy felt her face scrape against the stone of the cold cave floor as her body crashed to the ground.

  
Everything went black.  
And silent.  
And cold.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Warm. Soft and warm on her lips.

When Wendy woke up, there was a warm tingling sensation pressed firmly against her lips. She opened her mouth just slightly and her tongue tasted… peppermint and chocolate.

She heard a harsh gasp and tried to crack her eyes. Her eyelids felt so heavy. She tried again and Dipper’s worried face blinked into view.

“Wendy. You’re awake,” he whispered.

She felt something move under her neck and realized her head was being cradled in his hands, instead of sitting against the hard cave floor.

“Was I knocked out? What happened?” Her lids were barely moving as she blinked up at him. His face had never been this close before. She found herself letting her eyes roam over it until it found little scruffy hairs under his chin and jawline.

_Huh. Is that?_

He slowly pulled her up into a sitting position and put a little space between them. But only a little.

“DIPPER HAD TO KISS YOU OR YOU WOULD SLEEP 100 YEARS!” Mabel’s scream echoed through the cave.

Wendy winced at the noise. “What?”

“He-hey uh-” Dipper scrambled up, rushed to Mabel and smacked her hard in the shoulder.

“What Mabel means is, the uh- hand witch wasn’t getting many dates recently and decided to make a stupid fairy tale spell. So cliche’ right?” Dipper grunted and eyeballed Mabel.

“And it could only be broken by a kiss on the lips with-” Mabel snorted as Dipper smacked a hand over her mouth.

Wendy put a hand to her dizzy head and tried to stand. Everything was a little blurry, but was quickly coming back. “It had to be broken by a kiss?” Her voice scratched. Man did she feel dry.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Dipper said quickly, sounding desperate to get that point across.

She took a few wobbly steps towards the twins.

Dipper moved toward her, to help her in case she stumbled on the uneven floor. "Well- uh-” he cleared his throat. “It was either me or Mabel, so I figured.” He shrugged. “I didn’t. I really didn’t have a choice.”

Wendy shook her head as a shocked smile pulled on her lips. "Dipper you saved me!"

She threw her arms around Dipper’s neck and slammed her body against his. Curling her head and shoulders around his face, she hugged him tightly.

As her senses slowly came back, she breathed him in deeply. His scent, a welcome change to the moldy cave air.

_Ah, Pine Tree. He smelled like cinnamon and spicy pine trees all year._

She feels Dipper’s warm body against hers. His arms slowly wrap around her.

_Warm. He’s so warm. The cave is so cold and Dipper is..._

“So warm.” _Had she said that out loud?_

Suddenly, Dipper wiggles out of her grasp. Almost forcefully. He quickly turns around and shoves his hands in his pockets.

_Where’s he going?_

“We- uh- need to get back. Now. We should leave now. It’s a long walk and it’s almost dark. Um. Need to get sleep before Mabel’s party.”

And with that, he practically ran out of the cave, never looking back.

_That was weird. Did I do something wrong?_

Wendy furrows her brows in confusion and glances at Mabel. Mabel has a goofy happy look on her face and is just staring after her brother.

\- - - -

Preview for next time:

Christmas 2013  
Dipper’s perspective:

I was 14-years-old when I had my first kiss. And it was with the red-headed goddess of beauty.


	3. His kiss is delicious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper's perspective on their first kiss.  
> As always, leave me comments if you have any ideas or requests for next time!

Christmas 2013  
Dipper’s perspective:

I was 14-years-old when I had my first kiss. And it was with the red-headed goddess of beauty.

When Wendy fainted in the hand witch’s cave, it felt like hell broke lose. The hand witch said Wendy was the one who was cursed with the “mistletoe spell” because she was the one who read the paper.

I was panicking. I was trying to look through my new journal, four, but it had nothing helpful about this mistletoe curse. Of course it didn’t. This was a new curse the hand witch made up just to get a freaking date.

My head was spinning. Wendy was in trouble and I couldn’t do anything.

Mabel was crying and trying to get Wendy to wake up. But it was clear she didn't know what to do either.

Finally my head caught back up to my circumstances and I spun around to find the hand witch trying to sneak off.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“YOU! You’re not going anywhere. Get back here and fix this!”

The hand witch spun around and screeched in fear. “Me? I can’t! This has nothing to do with me!”

“Nothing- you’re the one who cursed her!” Blood pumping with adrenaline, I put my hands on the witch and dragged her back over to Wendy by her ratty old shirt.

“Now fix it, or I’ll make you sorry!”

“I can’t! It’s not that kind of spell. There’s no antidote or reversal spell. You need someone who loves her,” her cooky old voice crowed. She slowly took a step back.

“What? What do you mean?” Mabel said between sobs.

“It’s a spell I made to get a man. He’d be cursed and come here for his promised mistletoe kiss. Then he, of course, would be so grateful that my magic kiss had broken the spell, that he’d be in love with me!”

“So, so what? We just have to find someone to kiss her? What kind of a spell is that? Did you get it out of a children’s book? That’s sick,” Mabel said, voice now more angry than sad.

“No, it’s not that easy. The spell can only be broken by love's first kiss or she will sleep for 100 years. Romantic isn’t it? It works for me because any man who’d be willing to kiss me is instantly my true love,” she said with a creepy cackle.

“That’s really messed up, lady,” Dipper growled.

“So, you gotta find someone who loves her to wake her up with a kiss… before sundown. So…. Does she have a boyfriend?”

Dipper felt cold. He didn’t want to think about Wendy being kissed by anyone. But did she even have a boyfriend? He purposely didn’t ask her about her love life all summer. He didn’t want to know.

The only boyfriend he could think about was Robbie. But the thought made his face heat with anger.

_Robbie can’t kiss her. He doesn’t even love her, does he? Does she love him?_

“She… she doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Mabel says quietly. “She had one but, she broke up with him and he moved out of town.”

_Oh, Good. Wait, no, bad! We still need someone._

“Well, it just has to be someone who loves her. But don't wait too long. I don't actually know how long you have before the spell is permanent… But I’m pretty sure it’s sundown,” she said from the edge of the cave.

Dipper and Mabel looked up to see she was already scampering out into the woods. “Well, good luck!”

Dipper banged his fist on the cave wall and yelled that curse word again. “What are we gonna do?”

Mabel pauses, then looks up at him. "Dipper, what about you?"

His eyes widen in almost horror. “No. No way! We're just friends. She- What about her family? They love her?”

“A kiss on the lips, Dipper? Ew gross.”

“But uh, what about? A friend?”

“I don't even know how many close friends she still has around here. Maybe Tambry, but she's halfway across the state.... And the clouds are already turning pink on the edges.”

Dipper kept pacing back and forth, pulling at his hair until his sister said his name louder.

“Dipper! We don't have time. Don't you love her at all anymore? Even a little?”

Looking almost frightened, he pads his way over to where Mabel is kneeling next to Wendy’s lifeless form, and sits down next to her. Dipper looks at her rosebud lips… and exhales deeply.

_Does he love Wendy?_

_Only every time he blinks… He's loved her since she first said his name. He loves..._

But kissing her? It feels like such a violation. She can't even consent. It just feels wrong.

“I can't, Mabel,” he whispers.

“Dipper... If you don't, she'll… she'll die. She'll stay asleep forever. She needs you,” Mabel’s voice sounds watery.

That made his stomach lurch.

...

“Fine, but, just- give us some space.” He doesn’t let himself look up as Mabel walks away. He knows she’s going to sneak back and peek anyways. He’s already nervous enough. He feels like such a creep.

Dipper gently lifts Wendy’s head in his hands and touches a finger to her cheek. It was ice cold.

“Wendy, I-” he swallows. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t do this without permission… please forgive me.”

He holds his breath when he leans forward and presses his lips against hers. Barely at first, afraid of offending her if she woke up mid-kiss.

_She might not be as mad if it was just a small peck, right? No. That’s stupid. She’d be mad regardless. A kiss is a kiss._

_But if the curse needs a kiss... then I have to make sure it actually works._

His lightning brain thought all of this in about 1.5 seconds.

He slanted his mouth over hers. He shifted his lips from barely pressing against hers, to firmly pressing against hers.

He inhaled, and his nostrils filled with the scent of heaven. With the scent of her.

_This is it. I’m really kissing her. And ooohhhhh…. she tastes…_

His eyes rolled back in his head as his fingers dug deeper into her hair. He could feel everything… her strands of hair soft between his fingers… his heart beating ten times faster than it ever has… her warm lips sliding under his… her tongue sliding across the seam of his barely parted mouth… her bre-  
.  
..  
Dipper gasped loud enough to echo as he pulled his head back and touched a hand to his lips, wet with her saliva. As she cracks her eyes open, he gently cradles her face, lifting it closer to scrutinize her small movements.

“Wendy. You’re awake,” he whispered.

She moans gently below him and his erection hears it loud and clear.

“Was I knocked out? What happened?”

He commanded his hard on to chill out as he slowly pulled her up into a sitting position. He forced himself to put a little space between them. But only a little. He was so tempted to lean forward again… to just-

“DIPPER HAD TO KISS YOU OR YOU WOULD SLEEP 100 YEARS!” Mabel’s scream echoed through the cave.

“What?”

_**Love’s first kiss**. Oh bonkers don't, Mabel._

“He-hey uh-” Dipper scrambled up, rushed to Mabel and smacked her hard in the shoulder.

“What Mabel means is, the uh- hand witch wasn’t getting many dates recently and decided to make a stupid fairy tale spell. So cliche’ right?” Dipper grunted and eyeballed Mabel.

“And it could only be broken by a kiss on the lips with-” Mabel snorted as Dipper smacked a hand over her mouth.

“Will you please, desist?” he whispered harshly.

“It had to be broken by a kiss?” Wendy said, sounding confused.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Dipper said quickly, desperate to make sure she wasn’t mad. To make sure she knew he didn’t want to force himself on her.

Dipper moved toward her when it looked like she was going to stumble across the floor and fall.

"Well- uh-” he cleared his throat. _Think, you moron!_

“It was either me or Mabel, so I figured...” He shrugged.

_What did he figure? Maybe she would have rather kissed Mabel. Moron._

“I didn’t. I really didn’t have a choice.”

"Dipper you saved me!"

He felt his body slammed against hers. He felt her breasts pressing into him as she squeezed him to her.

He really shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help himself. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and breathed in deeply.

“She’s okay,” he mouthed to himself silently. “And"

"So warm.”

_Had he said that out loud?_

_Is his hard on poking into her legs? Oh man, no!_

Dipper wiggled out of her grasp as quickly as possible, trying not to let any part of his pelvis touch her. Then he ran out of the cave as fast as possible.

_She felt it. She felt it. I know she did. She’s going to hate you forever and think you’re a perv. You assaulted her while she was unconscious and then got a hard on as soon as she woke up._

_You can’t look at her. You can’t talk to her. You better just avoid her until you go back home in a couple of days. Maybe you can talk to her again next summer._

\- - - - - - - - - - - -  
Preview for next time:

Christmas 2013  
Wendy’s perspective:

_Is he mad at me? Why did Dipper run like that yesterday? Was it because he kissed me? Because he **had** to kiss me?_


	4. A kiss at the party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do Dipper and Wendy feel about their first kiss?

Christmas 2013  
Wendy’s perspective:

After being hit by a fairy tale curse, Wendy stayed home all day the next day recovering. It helped her feel better enough to go to Mabel’s “After Christmas, Christmas Party.”

Now she’s snuggled up in a green tree sweater, quietly not-mingling around the snack machine. And it’s just as well. Mabel’s playing games with Candy and Grenda while Dipper’s been avoiding her like the plague.

_Is he mad at me? Why did Dipper run like that yesterday? Was it because he kissed me? Because he had to kiss me?_

The redhead sheepishly glanced around the room. Stan was flirting with a blonde. Ford was talking to Soos and Melody. But Dipper was nowhere.

Wendy thought through the events to try to figure out what set him off. _First, Dipper kissed me to break the spell._

She absent-mindedly touched her fingers to her lips, and smiled. _M_ _mmm.. cozy.. Peppermint and chocolate._

_Then, I hugged him and said thanks for saving me. Then, he ran out of the cave.... Maybe I'm forgetting something, because this just isn't adding up. I was pretty fuzzy when I woke up... But I do remember those things... Would it be weird to just ask him?_

Wendy usually acts cool as ice on the outside, but inside? She’s super stressed a lot of the time. There’s so much pressure in high school and her family is chaotic. She usually feels most like herself with her friends. But she’s not with her friends right now. Tambry and Lee are out of town visiting family. Nate’s family is doing their own celebration tonight. Thompson is, well, she had no idea where Thompson was. Maybe he’s floating around here somewhere.

She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do at Christmas parties. Instead of Christmas, the Corduroy family usually does apocalypse training. But now that they’ve already lived through weirdmageddon, Wendy’s Christmas breaks have more free time.

But the thing that really hit her was that she was at the Mystery Shack for a Christmas party, but she wasn’t hanging out with the Pines twins. She’s just awkwardly wandering by herself. She feels a bit out of place.

She sighed to herself. _This isn’t like him, to skip out on one of Mabel’s parties. Does he want to avoid me that badly? Maybe… maybe he didn’t want to kiss me. Maybe he felt forced and he really didn’t want to. And now he’s avoiding me? But why?_

She started meandering around the house aimlessly, keeping her head down to avoid conversation. She knew she was half-looking for him, but she was pretending she wasn’t.

_Why would he hate kissing me so much? I thought.. He liked me once? But I mean, he doesn’t think of me like that anymore. Of course. That was two summers ago. I’m too old for him. Of course. We’re just friends. He’s too young for me and doesn’t think of me like that. And, I don’t think of him like that. Right?_

Wendy glanced up to find herself in the kitchen doorway. She leaned against the wall and exhaled sharply, feeling very hot in her face.

_I just need to talk to him. I’m sure there’s no reason why… why he would HATE the idea of kissing me. It’s probably just.. awkward. Because we’re friends. Because there’s an age difference._

“Being a freshman is so different, and I feel so much older, you know?” Mabel’s peppy voice was floating through the house and made its way to Wendy. “But not as old as Dipper must feel. He’s not even a freshman. He skipped a grade! So he’s in 10th grade now, while I’m stuck back in 9th.”

Girly gasps were heard after that exclamation, and Wendy’s own ears peaked at the new news.

“But you’re always in the same grade,” Wendy heard Candy say. “Dipper must be so smart.”

“Of course he is!” Mabel proudly exclaimed. “My bro bro is the smartest guy I know, and he’s probably the smartest guy in 10th grade.”

“Tenth grade?” A girl’s voice chimed in.

 _Who is that?_  
Wendy craned her head around the doorway to peak.

 _Why am I hiding? Stop being weird._  
But she couldn’t get herself to move from her partly secluded spot.

“Pacifica, you made it,” Mabel said with a warm smile. “I was afraid your parents wouldn’t let you.”

Wendy saw Pacifica Northwest had wedged herself into Mabel’s conversation. She looked beautiful, perfect blonde hair, perfect makeup, perfect red sweater dress.

Wendy didn’t know why she cared, but she all the sudden wondered how ratty her old green tree sweater looked.

Pacifica gave Mabel a small smile. “Well, I can’t keep doing what they say forever, you know? I’ll probably be grounded for a month… But, hey. Dipper’s in 10th grade? Wow. Didn’t know Pine Tree was so.. progressive in California,” Pacifica’s velvety voice added.

_Pine Tree? Since when did she call him Pine Tree?_

“Dipper must be really popular now,” the blonde said with a smile.

“You better believe it!” came Grenda’s gruff voice.

“I’m what now? Mabel, what did I say about talking about me behind my back?” Dipper’s voice called over the crowd.

“Wow, Dipper. I’m so happy to hear how well you’re doing in California. Where have you been hiding that big brain of yours?” Pacifica’s voice dripped sugary sweet.

Suddenly Wendy stiffened as she saw Dipper come into view between Mabel and Pacifica. The redhead bit her lip and looked down.

“And you’re all the sudden so mature, I hear,” she heard Pacifica go on.

_Alright this is ridiculous. You don’t have to hide from him. It’s probably nothing. Dipper doesn’t hate you, he’s your best friend. Since when are you so insecure anyway? Woman up! Just go talk to him and you’ll see there was no weird reason why he really didn’t want to kiss you yesterday. He’s just..._

She straightened her posture and stepped into the room.

“Hey, Wen. I was looking for you!” Thompson said, stepping in front of her path. “Soos told me you got mixed up in some weird curse yesterday.”

Wendy liked Thompson. He was in Wendy’s friend group and his friends used to tease him, duct-taping snacks to his stomach and daring him to eat gross things. But lately he’s been standing up for himself a little more.

But now was not the time for him to assert his place in the friend circle. She needed to smooth things out with Dipper and he was blocking her path.

“Um, yeah, I guess. I’m fine though,” she said quickly, training to glance around him.

Pacifica and Dipper were talking a bit farther away from the rest of the group.

“Oh good. You don’t look so good, you know?”

Wendy paused. “I-What?”

Thompson fidgeted with his hands. “You know. You’re usually pretty, it’s just, not now? I mean- oh, I’m sorry. That came out wrong... Let me start over. You look, kinda sick. Like you had a rough night.”

_Not pretty huh? You’re saying there’s something wrong with the way I look? That I look bad today? While everyone else here is looking all sparkly and festive and polished? Like Pacifica and Dipper?_

Wendy shot Thompson a glare, but tried to keep her temper down. “Yeah, well. Like you said, I was cursed yesterday. I think I get a pass to not look pretty today. But, I’ll catch up with you later, Thompson.”

She glanced around the room, trying to find Dipper. She was going to apologize for whatever it was she did to make him mad. Then they were going to laugh about it and be friends, no problem. Now where was he?

Making her way through the crowd, she finally spotted him halfway across the room, backed into a corner by Pacifica. Weird.

Pacifica placed a hand on his chest and pointed up.

_What was she pointing at? Mistletoe? Why did Mabel have to put mistletoe EVERYWHERE this year?_

_But, did that mean? Was she going to?_

_She was. And she did. And they are… And_

And Wendy choked on her own spit. Her feet stopped moving and did an immediate abrupt face. She wasn’t about to watch Pacifica and Dipper kissing. She couldn’t.

Another thing she couldn’t do was explain why she was high-tailing it to the bathroom, but within seconds she found herself in there, locking the door behind her. She crushed the hem of her sweater in her hand and stared blankly at herself in the mirror. She couldn’t seem to calm her heart rate down.

_Why am I doing this? Dipper and Pacifica… kissed. And that’s fine. Why would I care?_

_Good for him. Good for them. He’s a great guy. And he’s allowed to kiss whoever he wants. And he wants to kiss- Pacifica._

Her shocked wide eyes fell droopy at that realization.

_And I don’t care._

But the girl looking back at her in the mirror had tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

_It wasn’t age that made Dipper not want to kiss me. It was Pacifica._

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

**Tease for next time:**

Christmas 2013

Dipper’s perspective:

_Pacifica kissed me. Did I miss something here?_


	5. What is going on with Pacifica?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, guys. This is a smaller chapter... The next significant chunk is taking a bit longer to write, but it will be there soon!

**Christmas 2013**

Dipper’s perspective:

 _I can’t believe Pacifica kissed me._ When she did... I felt nothing. Confused, but nothing. I honestly don’t know what got into her.

And after she did, she drew attention to us by talking really loudly about mistletoe. People were turning to stare and started mumbling.

I had to use my willpower to restrain myself so I wouldn't wipe off my mouth with the back of my hand. Not that she’s gross or anything… it’s just weird. It’s just, why would she kiss me like that?

I had started thinking of her as a friend this summer, when she started being a little nicer to me and Mabel. But I was never into her like that. And she definitely didn’t seem into me.

By the end of Christmas break, she made me promise to video chat with her over the school year. I half-heartedly agreed, thinking it might get my mind off of Wendy… and Wendy’s kiss… and her lips…

At first over video chat, Pacifica was acting REALLY flirty, and was always strangely having chats in the same room as her parents. She would talk extra loudly and asked me a lot about skipping a grade, and if I had “gotten into any trouble” lately.

After a while, I started to almost like her, a little bit, maybe. I mean, she’s fairly pretty, I guess. Maybe a little quirky, but she seemed to be actually interested in me and my life.

But then, for no reason, she ghosted me. All of a sudden she stopped calling and sent me a text saying she didn’t think it was working out. So our, whatever that was, was done right before Valentine’s Day came around.

Women are weird, I swear.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

 **Summer-Fall 2014**  
Age at the end of summer:  
Dipper and Mabel: 15  
Wendy: 17

Wendy’s perspective:

It was my 17th birthday when I heard that Dipper and Mabel weren't coming into town for the summer this year. 🥺


	6. The school year starts for Wendy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Senior year for Wendy is full of surprises.

**Summer-Fall 2014**  
Age at the end of summer:  
Dipper and Mabel: 15  
Wendy: 17

**Wendy’s perspective:**

It was my 17th birthday when I heard that Dipper and Mabel weren't coming into town for the summer this year.

 _Why did that upset me so much?_ I wasn’t even this put out when Nate’s family moved to Montana a few months ago. Not nearly as put out as Thompson and Lee were.

_But why Dipper and Mabel? Because he was my best friend? Is. Is my best friend. A best friend that seems to see me less and less…_

But it wasn’t his fault. His parents were apparently getting stir-crazy living in California and needed a change. I’m guessing some sort of mid-life crisis.

They started traveling as much as possible for work over the summer and insisted on taking the twins. They said it would be good for them to “see the world” and “get cultured.” And Wendy only knew all of this because Soos was moping around complaining about it at work.

_I was angry. Angry? Rejected maybe? No. Rejected implies something… else._

_Nope. I was angry._

I was stalking them on social media as soon as I figured out they had them. I wouldn’t admit it to myself, but I knew exactly why seeing Pacifica comment on all of Dipper’s photos with little hearts and kissy GIFs upset me so much. Even though they never got “social media official.”

Because Pacifica was making something clear to the internet world: “This boy is mine. I’m branding him.”

So I made a decision. After working my tail off at the Shack and getting a second job at Lazy Susan’s Diner, I saved up a wad of cash for the last bit of summer. Then I left that tiny town behind me for two weeks, stole Tambry, and did a road trip. She needed some girl time anyway after her and Robbie finally broke up. At some stupid Love God concert of all places.

We took our time and made it all the way to the Grand Canyon before heading back. We let our hair get messy and didn’t care. We didn’t wear makeup and didn’t care. Didn’t check our phones, didn’t eat like rabbits, and didn’t make sure our outfits looked “pretty.” And most importantly, we didn’t think about boys the whole trip, and didn’t care.

We even let our trip bleed into the first three days of the school year. **Suck it, senior year!**

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wendy woke up that Thursday feeling so tired. Too tired to roll out of bed, shower, and head to school. But she did anyway.

But some of her “free spirit” road trip was still clinging to her bones because she barely did more than the absolute necessary grooming. She didn’t even wear her pine tree cap… but she kept it in the side pocket of her backpack. It was against school dress code anyways.

Walking to school, she self-consciously pulled out her phone camera to use as a mirror. Her reflection looked fine. The plain black t-shirt she wore was tighter on her than before, she noted. And she felt like her bra wasn’t holding up it’s end of the bargain.

_Uhg. Guess I have to update my wardrobe again and buy more bras. So outrageously expensive._

Her cheeks had slimmed out a bit, her figure had filled in a bit, she had somewhat dark circles under her eyes from feeling tired, but who cares?

_I don’t need to look pretty today. Who cares? I don’t even want a boyfriend this year. I just want to get through the year, see my friends, and see the twins… next summer when they finally come back home._

If they come back home. They’re coming back home, right? Last summer was just a one time thing?

She was pulled out of her self-esteem lowering train of thought when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She had that feeling like she was being watched. Quickly glancing around her, she didn’t notice anyone unusual at all. Just a couple teens walking to school and the occasional car driving by.

Wendy shook her head, pushed her phone into her jean pockets. At least her jeans were stretchy, and flexed to hug her new rounder hips. She pushed through the doors to the high school and made her way to her first class.

_I’d rather wait to be with a guy I care about anyway, not just waste time and broken hearts on some oaf. Someone who’s not a perv. Someone I can actually talk to about things bigger than myself. Like goals, and mysteries, and unexplained parts of the universe..._

All the way down the halls, she thought she heard murmurs of “ _pines… twins… dipper.. Dipper…_ ”

She sighed and slid into her desk. Propping her head on her hands, she looked out the window and didn’t bother to say hi to her classmates filing in.

She knew who she was thinking of. But Dipper isn’t part of the equation.

_I’m too old for him. He’s 3… no 2 years younger than me. So, 15. 15? Huh._

“Hello, class,” her short curly-haired teacher bellowed from the front of the room. He scribbled something on the board then added sternly, “Just sit down. Anywhere there’s an empty seat. Now I don’t want you all day-dreaming about your summer break. You need to focus on what’s really important now. Calculus!”

Ugg. Calculus. She just HAD to do well on her standardized tests last year and land in calculus. She didn’t even like math, not really. Well, maybe a little. But calculus is a whole new level of headache.

_Daydream? Don’t mind if I do. So… two years. Not so, drastic as I remember. So like, if he was older… like 20. I would be 22. And if we were 20 and 22, then… then who would care? Would anyone care?... That’s five years from now._

Blankly staring out the window, she watched as a fluffy brown ball of fur scurried under the trees. It had to be the fattest squirrel she’d ever seen. Either that or someone lost their pomeranian. She sighed loudly, earning her a glare from her teacher. Then she sheepishly dug her nose into her textbook to daydream more discreetly.

_But what about… 19? 18? 18 and 20 doesn’t sound bad... 18 and 20 sounds fine._

Twisting her hair in her fingers, she tried to slow down and think logically. She had to breathe slowly, in and out. Breathe in the stale school air and the pine scent. Pine scent. Must be a new air freshener. Or maybe her jerky nose playing tricks on her.

_Focus. So if I just enjoy being single for this year… and next year… and then when Dipper turns 18 I could-_

Her posture stiffened and head popped up. She blinked once, twice, and reread the same equation in her textbook three times. The class whizzed by without her.

_I could. Three years from now. 18 and 20. Maybe I’d still be single then. And maybe…? Maybe it could work? Dipper and me? I think… it could._

She lets her face slowly grin at the thought.

“Miss Corduroy.”

_Maybe. Maybe next time I see him, next summer, we could grow close again. Then maybe we can keep hanging out until we’re 18 and 20._

“Miss Corduroy.”

_Then I can be all romantic... and ask him out on a date and we can try to make this work._

“Wendy Corduroy!”

“Hm? What?” she looked up from her daze to see her teacher glaring at her.

“Answer me when I call you the first time. Not the third. Now take your book with you and work out number seven on the board.”

_Work it out… uh oh._

Wendy slumped to the front of the classroom and stared blankly at her page. She had no idea how to do this. It probably would have helped if she was listening to the example at the beginning of class.

She glanced at the equations around her, seeing if anything on the board would help her. One sort of looked similar, so she started trying to somewhat copy the format.

She sighed again. She’s been doing that a lot lately. She might as well admit defeat and ask the teacher to walk her through it.

Turning around, her eyes roamed around the room to find her teacher when they landed on _him_. Fluffy brown hair, chewing on the end of a pencil, defined chin.

Him. Not him. Older him. Now her mind is really making fun of her heart.

“What the ****?”

“Detention, Miss Corduroy,” her teacher seethed from behind her.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tease for next time:

End of Summer 2014

Dipper’s perspective:

It was the week before my 15th birthday when I found out I would be going to Gravity Falls High School for the remainder of my high school years. Which was… only one.


	7. Dipper starts his senior year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel are going to Gravity Falls High School for the rest of their high school years. This means their classmates include Candy, Brenda, and Wendy.

**Summer/Fall 2014**

**Dipper’s perspective:**

It was the week before my 15th birthday when I found out I would be going to Gravity Falls High School for the remainder of my high school years. Which was… only one.

Mabel’s first serious boyfriend broke up with her and the "lifeblood of her euphoria" was desecrated. She missed her besties Candy and Grenda and begged and begged to go to Gravity Falls for our birthday.

Our parents had taken us traveling all summer on their work trips and had apparently decided they liked their new “young and free” lifestyle. Dad accepted a position as a travel writer and mom was working fully remotely now. They were going to travel the world and homeschool us this year.

Mabel freaked out and said that she was too extroverted to be homeschooled. Dramatic.

I pointed out that I’d probably be able to get more of my research done, but that didn’t seem to be a valid reason to Mabel. The idea of studying with more access to Ford did appeal to me though.

After a lot of persuasion, and begging from Mabel, our parents decided to let us go to Gravity Falls High School instead.

We ended up spending our entire 15th birthday packing up all of our necessities and moving into our Grunkle Stan's house.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

It’s the first day of my senior year.

It was supposed to be junior year, but I skipped another grade. Heh.

_**TAKE THAT** stupid government guys that wouldn’t take me seriously!_

I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of teenage girls shrieking. Candy and Grenda had come over that morning to have breakfast with Mabel and walk to school together.

“Dipper, come on! GET UP! IT’S TIME TO GET READY FOR SCHOOL!” Mabel burst through my bedroom door and ripped my blanket off my body.

“Gah! Mabel! Cut it out.”

I’m fairly relieved that Mabel suggested we each get our own rooms this year. She said she needed more closet space and privacy to get ready for dates. I was glad I’d have more room for my experiments and could stay up working as late as I wanted without her pestering me.

She’s staying in our old shared bedroom. I’m staying in Soos’s old break room.

Over the summer, he hired the Corderoy family to expand the shack by a couple rooms, including a new break room and a sweet hot tub out back!

Mabel giggled and hopped onto the edge of my bed. “Come on, Dr. Pines. You're so lazy. Get dressed!”

 _Dr. Pines._ Mabel can sometimes be a little jerky… Teasing me, no matter how many times I ask her not to...

She's been teasing me with that nickname ever since the mistletoe incident. Otherwise known as the best and worst day of my life. Otherwise known as the day I kissed Wendy… In my mind, Wendy is my first kiss. I am definitely not counting Mermando.

When I let my mind wander, _I could still taste her… lips, tongue, strawberry chapstick._

Mabel gave me a strange look, telling me I wasn’t being discreet with my daydreaming.

“Oh, brother!” She pinched her nose and dramatically waved her hand back and forth. “You sweaty teenage boy! You stink! Go take a shower before anything. Pew!”

I showered, put on deodorant, and didn’t bother to shave before thudding into the kitchen.

I came in just in time to hear Mabel say, “This glitter is WAYYY better than that cheapo stuff they have at the drugstore. I can’t believe our luck for our first day!”

“You’re finally out of bed, kid,” Ford said, plopping a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, you really ARE getting tall. I think Mabel’s laying it on a little thick though.”

I smiled sleepily and sat down.

"You didn't have to curtail your Morrisville trip for us, Grunkle Ford…"

"Not a problem, boy. Happy to spend some more time with you both!" He leaned down in a gruff not-whisper, "Besides, Stanley's old man back needs a little time in the hot tub."

I chuckled.

“So, Dipper,” Candy said, scooting her chair closer to mine at the kitchen table. She had blue glitter sprinkled across her face that matched Grenda’s and Mabel’s. “You must be so excited, huh? Going to high school with us. What classes are you taking? Are you going to go to prom?”

I shrugged and stuffed some pancakes in my mouth. _It’s too early for interrogation._

“Oh, prom! So fancy!” Grenda added, leaning her elbows on the table.

“Girls, girls,” Mabel cut in.

The tension in my shoulders eased a little. _Looks like Mabel’s actually going to start helping me out this year with ridiculous girly questions._

“Of course he’s going to prom!” Mabel squeaked, almost slamming her empty juice glass.

_Or not._

“It’s the most important night of high school! He’s going to wear a tux, and rent a limo, and get a date, and she’ll look like a princess, and they’ll dance all night and get married!”

Dipper choked on his coffee.

At school, Dipper frantically looked at his building map and read every door that whizzed by. He wasn’t running. He wasn’t running. He was just walking very quickly.

_Calculus with Mr. Drapkin. Finally._

Thirty seconds after class started, I barreled through the door.

Scanning the room, there was a seat available in the very front, center. Nope. And a seat available behind a redhead. A very pretty redhead. She’s-

“Just sit down.” The short curly-haired man standing at the front of the class was glaring at me.

“Anywhere there’s an empty seat. Now I don’t want you all day-dreaming about your summer break. You need to focus on what’s really important now. Calculus!”

I nodded, breathed an apology, and made my way to sit behind her.

_ It’s Wendy. It has to be Wendy. She hasn’t turned her face away from the window yet, but it has to be her. _

I hadn’t heard from Wendy for months. While I finished helping our parents load the moving van, Mabel was calling all her friends in Gravity Falls to tell them about the move. I assumed she called Wendy too. I thought about calling Wendy myself, but, I, chickened out.

I opened my book to the page the teacher mentioned and chided myself. _Well if it is her, you don’t want to seem like a love-sick puppy do you? Pay attention._

As the teacher droned on about an example equation, a beautiful sigh in front of me heated my face. I know that sigh.

I glanced up to watch the back of her red-haired head. Her hair that’s.. So soft between my fingers. Her head slumped forward into her textbook.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and stared hard at the board.

_Focus. If it’s her, which it totally is her. She smells like her. Moves like her. Breathes like her…_

_Focus. Then you can talk to her after class._

But with every small movement and fidget from the beauty in front of him, his eyes couldn’t help but follow. She twisted her hair. She breathed in and out. She sat up straighter and tilted her head.

He was shamelessly ogling her ankles tucked under her desk when the teacher grumbled.

“Miss Corduroy.”

Dipper had to swallow hard to keep himself from audibly gasping. Wendy was inches from him. He hadn’t seen her in a year. Now he could reach out and touch her.

“Miss Corduroy.”

He rearranged his long legs as his blood rushed south.

“Wendy Corduroy!”

“Hm? What?” she looked up.

“Answer me when I call you the first time. Not the third. Now take your book with you and work out number seven on the board.”

Wendy rose from her chair. Her butt came into view, just inches from his hand, and swayed up to the board.

_Lord, have mercy._

He swallowed.

_Stop staring. Don’t let her catch you staring. What problems are we working? Just stare straight down at your paper and stop staring._

As my goddess of beauty sighed again, it took all my concentration to bite down on my pencil and force my eyes to stay down.

“What the ****?”

“Detention, Miss Corduroy,” the teacher said.

Her voice cursing made me blush, as I peeked up through my bangs. I saw her profile looking down just before it slipped through the door.

Dipper didn’t see Wendy the rest of the day. Well, not really.

He caught a glance of her on the way to his computer mathematics class, a shapely redhead digging through her backpack. He wanted to stop and say hi, but she was surrounded by friends... and looked busy… Maybe later.

Physics 2 was his last class of the day, and Mabel was waiting outside his door so they could walk home together.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -  
 **Tease for next time:**

**Early September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Wendy has exactly four classes with Dipper. Lovely. That’s fine. That’s great actually, she can try to talk to him about the misunderstanding…

So far, that hasn’t happened yet. On Friday, she tried to look less like a dumpster fire and felt like she was looking for him and Mabel all day.


	8. Mr. Mason will see you now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendy catches up with Mabel at school and has a shift with Dipper at the Murder Hut. I mean, Mystery Shack.

**Early September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Wendy has exactly four classes with Dipper: Calculus on yellow days and world literature, Spanish 2, and AP US Government and Politics on gray days. Plus block A lunch on yellow days, apparently. Lovely. That’s fine. That’s great actually, she can try to talk to him about the misunderstanding…

So far, that hasn’t happened yet. She felt too grimy after school on Thursday to pay them a visit at the shack. On Friday, she tried to look less like a dumpster fire and felt like she was looking for him and Mabel all day.

First, she got to world literature late and wound up sitting in the front row. She did spot him near the back row, but really didn’t have a chance to say hi. He was talking to Lee sitting next to him, who was apparently excited to have Dr. Fun Times in class with him. That might have been the happiest she’s seen Lee since Weirdmageddon.

Next was track, which is pretty frustrating to have in the middle of the day.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“I hate having track in the middle of the day. A boy must have thought of this, I swear.”

_Huh, guess she’s not the only one who feels this way._

Finishing braiding her hair, Wendy turns the corner in the locker room to see Mabel tying her pink track shoes.

Her hair was pulled into two cinnamon-looking buns on both sides of her head and her mature looking face was complimented with neon blue glitter.

“Don’t they know we’re going to sweat off our makeup? Even if we don’t, we’ll still wash it off in the shower!”

Wendy smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. _Finally_.

“Mabel, I didn’t know you did track.”

Mabel jumped to her feet and crashed into Wendy.

“Wendy! You’re here! We’re here! We go to school here now!”

Wendy laughed. “I can see that.”

Mabel flung her arms dramatically in the air. She now had a slender figure that stretched about as tall as Wendy’s eyebrows.

“But WAIT. We have TRACK together?! YESS! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Yes!”

Wendy raised her eyebrows as Mabel’s voice trailed higher and higher. The rest of the girls were walking out to the field, so Wendy and Mabel made their way with them.

“Yeah, it’s a great way to blow off energy. But don’t worry about the makeup, Mabel. You’re already beautiful.” She nudged her friend with her elbow.

“Awwwe, thank youuu. You’re beautiful too!” She picked up Wendy’s long braid and started playing with it. “You have such natural beauty. But Wendy, my glitter. My glitter is my thing, I have to have my glitter.”

Wendy smiled. “Well-”

“LADIES! Line up over here, please, while we go through our stretches!” the gym coach yelled from a few feet away.

The group of girls lined up, and Mabel wiggled in next to Wendy, whispering.

“They gave us more time to shower back in California. How do I reapply my glitter that fast?”

Sitting on the ground, Wendy split her legs open and reached over to grab her left foot. “Just don’t get your face wet,” she whispered. “Just tilt your head back so only your hair reaches the water. Then for your neck, you can just cup your hands and bring water to you. That’s what I do for my eyeliner.”

“Oooooh.” Mabel reached across the other way to grab her other foot.

“It takes a little practice at first, but you get used to it. Or you could just wait to apply makeup until after track. Then apply it really fast with practice.”

Mabel made a frown. “I guess I’ll have to.”

After track, Mabel’s makeup worries must have psyched her out, because Wendy tried extra hard not to get her face wet in the shower. Then she spent an extra couple minutes making sure her eyeliner was fine... and maybe possibly adding some extra blush.

She was steps away from the door to AP US Governments and Politics when she spotted a tall form with fluffy brown hair.

Her heart started racing.

_Is that him?_

A couple steps closer and Dipper turned his face to the side, revealing what was undeniably his profile. His eye must have caught her, because as she finished closing the distance, he turned and smiled at her.

“HI” he started too loudly, cleared his throat, then continued, “Um, we’re school here now. I mean- we live here now. For the summer- uh- school year. Uh, haha. How- how are you doing?”

His eyes were roaming all over face, while his cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink.

_Holy pickles, mature was a good look on Dipper. His baby fat face gave way for a defined chin and jawline. Brown scruff framed his chin and a black ear stud was peaking through his fluffy brown hair, glinting in the fluorescent lights._

And he was tall. So tall. _Taller than her? No? No. Maybe just as tall as her. He looked good. Tall good. Maybe she should tell him._

_Did she not say anything yet?!?_

“Hey, Dipper. Tall looks good on you,” Wendy said in the coolest voice she could muster, jerking her chin up to him.

His eyes widened in panic, and he took a step back.

_Oops._

“Yeah, haha. I guess, maybe- uh... Sure. So, government and politics? Is this you?” He gestured to the door with almost a grimace.

She nodded and walked in, but paused in the entrance until he walked in as well. She saw two open seats on the side in the third row and took a chance. “Do you wanna sit here?” She pointed to the chairs.

“Sit? Yeah. I sit. That’s cool.”

Then before either of them could feel any more awkward, the teacher came in and started the class.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

**Early September 2014**

**Dipper’s perspective:**

During class, Dipper found himself peeking over to Wendy next to him and willing his body to calm down. It was like every system went into hyperdrive.

He managed to make it through the class alive, without embarrassing himself, head out the door, and start walking towards his next class.

“Hey, Mr. MASON,” he heard Wendy’s voice call.

_Stupid role call. Stupid nerdy first name. Stupid-_

A warm hand touched the edge of his arm. “Don’t rush out on me now. Gosh, I hope you don’t hate me THAT much.”

His eyes darted to the hand, then to the beautiful face it belonged to. Her mouth was still rosebud pink, still probably tasted like strawberries, and was moving right now. Wait- is she talking?

“Sorry, what?” he said, trying to sound calm.

She raised an eyebrow. “I said I’m heading to Spanish 2. Do you need help finding your next class or are you good?”

_Spanish 2?_

“Yes.”

“Oh, okay then.” She looked down and tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear. “I guess I’ll see you later then?”

“Wait, no.”

“No?”

“No, um. Yes. I do need yo-ur help... getting... to… Spanish 2. Um. Please?”

“Oh, you’re going there too? Sure, we can walk together.“

Then his whole day was made because she smiled so warmly at him, he sighed.

“Don’t fall asleep on me now. You’ll make me think I’m boring.”

“HEH HEH!” He laughed too loud. “No way.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Pines twins’ first weekend back was also Dipper’s first shift at the Mystery Shack. It felt kind of unfair, to be honest.

Mabel was out with her friends, getting her nails done by fairies or something, and he was just here. Not catching up with friends. Not documenting new creatures or weirdness. Just running the register.

At least he could wear whatever he wanted at work. So he wore a snug, long-sleeved coral shirt, chinos, and his lumberjack hat.

Dipper was almost finished with his line of customers when the entrance bell chimed.

“Here’s your receipt. Have a nice day.” At the door, a redhead was grinning at him.

“Guess, I’m not working alone today.”

He straightened his posture to his full height and flicked his gaze over her before focusing on her eyes. The corners of his eyes creased as he noted he was finally about her height, and she was wearing his blue pine hat. “Hey!- Hi, Wendy. Um, what’s up?”

“Work’s up, man,” she said, jestering to her name badge.

That drew his attention to her blouse. Which drew his attention to the open buttons on her blouse, and her creamy white cleavage barely showing at the edge. As she walked closer, Dipper felt frozen in place.

_She’s working behind the counter with me? Am I supposed to step aside to make more room for her? Am I supposed to stay here and let her walk around me? I’ve been staring too long!_

The smell of heaven reached his nostrils as she closed the gap between them to leave six inches..

“Do you work late tonight?”

He felt her elbow bump into his as he watched her dark lashes blink at him. He drummed his fingers against the wooden counter.

“No, just until 3.”

“Sweet. They have me working ‘till close at 5.”

His eyes followed her movements as she leaned over the counter and propped her head in her hands. And he wasn’t going to look. Nope. This may be a glorious view of her butt, but he wasn’t going to look. Not more than once. Or twice.

“I was hoping I would run into you this weekend.”

_Back to her face. Which is now turned my direction and looks suspicious of my previous preoccupation. Bonkers._

“Oh, uh. Why?” Dipper willed his fingers to stop drumming by clutching the counter.

“I wanted to make sure we’re cool. You know. Things got a little… mixed up last Christmas. And you haven’t talked to me much since then. You’re not- mad at me are you?”

“NO! no no no no. Not at all. I’ve just been busy this year, traveling with my parents. And. I didn’t have phone service in most countries.”

“Oh! Duh, I feel so stupid now,” she rolled her eyes and lifted a shoulder. “Of course not. Well, I’m glad that we’re cool. Because there was something else too.”

 _My erection misunderstood that, could you please clarify?_  
“Oh?”

“I just have a little problem.”

_She’s pulling her hair through her fingers again. I wonder if she’s going to braid it? I wonder if she ever curls it?_

_She raised her eyebrow again. Focus, Dipper. She’s going to think you can’t pay attention._

“Oh. Sure. I’ll exert any cerebral or corporeal assistance that I can offer.”  
 _Nerd_.

At this, her smile got bigger and I sighed when she glanced away. It’s like I’m constantly holding my breath around her. What the heck?

“Well… I have this cooky furball trailing me. It’s a- mysterious creature. It doesn’t really have legs, it’s very hairy, and it’s about this big.” She turned my way, taking a step closer, and gestured a shoebox size with her hands.

 _Closer._  
I could see my chest heaving in my peripheral vision. Staring at her fingers, I muttered, “Oh.”

“I was wondering if you and Mabel might be up to help me investigate it and figure out what it wants? You know, kinda like a mysterious adventure? Like old times?”

 _Hang out?_  
I nodded too many times. “Yes, that would be- fantastic. Great. Very good.”

A small laugh drew my eyes to her lips. Her tongue darted out to catch her lower lip between her teeth... and I drew in a sharp breath. I blinked, then pressed my lips together to keep from gaping.

As I watched, her lips turned up a little at the corners.

“Hey, dude. I need a favor,” Soos called from the open door leading to the backroom.

Feeling more guilty than a sinner in church, Dipper jerked his head towards the voice. “Huh?”

“Wendy, when did you get here? I thought you weren’t due for another 30 minutes?”

I lifted an eyebrow at her and I could have sworn I saw her cheeks pink just a little.

“I decided to start early.”

“Oh, good. I need help with the new stock back here anyway. Dipper, you can stay on register, okay dude? Just call me if you have any problems.”

With a small glance at me, Wendy walked through the door, taking her scent of heaven with her.

About 90 minutes go by, and Dipper manages to only fidget with his hair six times. He’s going in for the seventh when a somewhat trying blonde makes her way into the shop.

Wearing way too much makeup for a Saturday morning, Pacifica meanders along the perimeter of the store, trailing her fingers along the merchandise. As she closes in on Dipper, she perks up her head all of the sudden and sashays over.

“Oh, hi, Dipper! I didn’t know you were working today.” Her lips pull thin in a smile as Dipper raises his eyebrows.

“Yep. I have a shift. Do you need help finding anything?”

She places a delicate hand on the desk and trails a perfectly manicured nail across it. “Oh, no. Not really. I wanted to see you.”

Dipper frowned. “Why?”

The blonde sighed a little theatrically and looked down. “I hope you’re not mad at me for a few months ago…” She glanced up through her bangs.

Dipper straightened his posture.

Pacifica furrowed her brows and blinked too many times. “It was really awful of me… I wouldn’t blame you, Dipper.”

Her hair swished as she tilted her chin to the side. “The truth is, I’m really very sorry about it. I ended it so abruptly between us, and that wasn’t fair to you. I didn’t even give you an explanation.”

Dipper exhaled. “It’s fine, Pacifica. We can just forget about it.”

She looked up suddenly with nervous eyes. “No, no it’s not.” She glanced to the side. “I just- I’m sorry. I was working through some personal issues… and I guess I really wasn’t ready for a long-distance relationship, you know?”

Her tone was so much lower and sadder that time that Dipper’s expression softened.

“I come from the world's most untrustworthy family… and don’t want to be a link on the world's worst chain…”

Dipper winced a little at the memory of insulting her.

“After all that stuff happened, after the killer ghost painting and weirdmageddon and everything, you and Mabel were the only ones who really gave me a chance after that. The only ones who bothered to be my friend. And I'm very grateful for that.”

Her eyes trailed aimlessly across the counter. “But I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she added quietly. “I hope you can forgive me.”

Dipper sighed, “Yeah, I- I guess so.”

Pacifica’s face perked up and grinned. “Thank you, Dipper. Really. And uh,” she tucked some hair behind her ear and leaned forward... “If you’d be interested now… I would be open… to trying again with a short-distance relationship?”

He shifted his weight to his other foot, then tried to speak as gently as possible. “Look, Pacifica. I forgive you for all of that... but, I just don’t think a relationship is a good idea right now.”

She smiled softly, but her eyebrows looked strained. “Yeah, okay.”

A weird thud behind him made Pacifica’s expression change to a neutral, controlled smile. “Good morning, Wendy.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -  
 **Tease for next time:**

**Early September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

“Hey, dude. I need a favor,” Soos called from the open door leading to the backroom.

 _Soos, man, you have terrible timing._  
“Wendy, when did you get here? I thought you weren’t due for another 15 minutes?”

_Shoot. I can’t tell him I peaked at the schedule and came in early to talk to Dipper alone, now can I?_


	9. Pacifica makes a cutesy lip pout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pacifica seems to be nosing around Dipper again, and Dipper opens up a little bit about his future plans.

**Early September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

“Hey, dude. I need a favor,” Soos called from the open door leading to the backroom.

 _Soos, man, you have terrible timing._  
“Wendy, when did you get here? I thought you weren’t due for another 30 minutes?”

_Shoot. I can’t tell him I peeked at the schedule and came in early to talk to Dipper alone, now can I?_

“I decided to start early.”

“Oh, good. I need help with the new stock back here anyway. Dipper, you can stay on register, okay dude? Just call me if you have any problems.”

I glanced at Dipper and made my way to the back.

Six large boxes of new merchandise were stacked up against the wall. The Mystery Shack must be getting a lot more business…

Once word got out that the "handyman of the apocalypse" was taking over the business, people started pouring in from miles around. I guess Soos helped so many people during weirdmageddon, that they wanted to pay it forward and told all their friends and family to come visit Gravity Falls.

“I need all these sweaters and books unloaded onto the shelves in our stockroom. Don’t worry about organizing. For now, just take them all out of the plastic and throw them up on these two empty shelves.” Soos patted the metal shelf and smiled. “Thanks, dude. I have to go talk to the delivery dude. We seem to be missing a box of Stan bobbleheads.”

As Wendy emptied the boxes in silence, she mulled over her slightly cringy ploy to spend time with Dipper.

 _It was a lie._ She knew exactly what that cooky furball was. It was a beard cub, a walking beard that steals aftershave and is mysteriously attracted to lumberjacks’ faces. And this one was hanging around Wendy.

When her dad saw it hanging off of her face last night, he laughed so hard beer shot out of his nose. Apparently a small pack of them clustered around him and his granddad when they were building the great log cabin in which Wendy's family currently lives.

Ripping the plastic bag open for a blue shirt, she longingly looked at the door that led to the front.

She didn’t know what came over her. She had come in with the idea to simply clear things up with Dipper, then chat it up and be friends again. But when she saw the cute little nervous faces he was making, it made her want to plan a time to hang out with him as soon as possible.

And all the sudden, 18 and 20 seems really far away.

Wendy finished unloading the first box of blue shirts and moved onto her second box with pink ones.

Then when she saw him in that form-fitting shirt, it made her feel something else. _Those hoodies he was wearing to school do not do him justice. His shoulders are broad. Quite broad. And he’s not totally buffed out or anything, but I could clearly see the forms of some muscle on his shoulders and chest._

_Woah, cool your jets, Corduroy. Fifteen is still young._

But in some tiny part of the back of her mind, she was daring to wonder what he looked like without the shirt on. But she wouldn’t permit that thought to fully take form, for now.

_How can one kid change so much so quickly? But, I guess I changed a lot from 12 to 15 too… Fifteen is still young. Fifteen is young, right? I was 15 when I met him._

That made her pause.

_And that was, only 2 years ago. But I didn’t think… How old did I feel 2 years ago?_

As she pondered it, she let her hands run across the spines of a row of books, fresh from the packaging.

_I certainly didn’t feel like a kid. I was breaking rules, learning to drive, dating Robbie. I definitely felt like a teen._

She nodded to herself in acknowledgement of her “sound aging reasoning.” However part of her knew a little horny devil was inside, just looking for any excuse he could.

_When I was 15, if a 17-year-old guy would have asked me out… I would have totally jumped at it. I wouldn’t have thought he was too old for me. I don’t even think my dad would have thought he was too old for me…_

She hummed out loud to herself, cradling a book to her chest. Then she pursed her lips to the side.

_Maybe I could move up my plan... to sooner? Maybe I don’t have to wait so long before tasting the young forbidden fruit that is Dipper? No, bad girl. Don’t think of it like that, it makes it creepy. Sexy. But creepy._

_But what if he doesn’t like me like that still? What if he outgrew his crush on me years ago. I wouldn’t want to hurt our friendship… I guess I could just... try and see?_

She didn’t remember moving from her spot by the boxes, but she suddenly found herself pulling the backroom door open and peeking out through the crack.

Dipper’s profile came into view and she sighed. She actually sighed.

_Good Lord, that looks edible._

As she allowed her eyes to scan his figure, a vision of her creeping up behind him with a sneak attack hug came to her mind. She would wrap her arms around his waist, tuck her head over his shoulder, and kiss his cheek firmly. And he would laugh that infectious laugh that made her heart pitter pat.

Opening the door a little more, her randy smile instantly turned cold. Pacifica’s big blonde hair was MUCH too close to Dipper’s.

_Or maybe I could move up my plan a LOT sooner._

_Pacifica._

_**Pacifica**._

Wendy’s eyes frantically ran from her glinting wedges, to long tan legs, to her mini skirt, to her frilly pink top, to her gently curled on the edges Barbie hair. Gorgeous.

 _I should get back out there._ Her head whipped back to the boxes. _Shoot. I have to finish these…. I can finish them in 10 minutes if I rush._

She skittered back to the boxes and started ripping through plastic.

But her mind betrayed her. She started envisioning Pacifica pulling Dipper in her arms, kissing his cheek, kissing his nose, kissing him under the mistletoe.

She huffed to herself. _Forget it. I can finish this in 5 minutes._

 _Pacifica is clearly ready to play with Dipper’s heart… and lips. And it’s time to beat her at her own game._ _Except, not a game._

Because being with Dipper wasn’t a game at all. Not to Wendy. It was something she wanted for a while, and something she was going to fight her balls off for. Or breasts. Or whatever.

Wendy ripped through the rest of the boxes in exactly 2 minutes and 39 seconds.

_Batter, up, Pacifica._

Even though she wanted to yank open the door and come barreling in, she made herself stop and take a breath so she could open the door slowly, like a normal person.

“Thank you, Dipper. Really,” she heard as soon as the door cracked.

Wendy’s eyes shot daggers as Pacifica leaned closer to Dipper.

“If you’d be interested now, I would be open to trying again with a short-distance relationship?”

_No. Say no. **Please say no.** I can’t have lost you already._

She had no idea what he was mumbling as blood rushed to her ears. All she saw was Dipper shifting and Pacifica smiling, and she ran smack into a display.

“Good morning, Wendy.”

_Oh, so formal, are we? So propper?_

At her name, Dipper turned around and gave her a small smile.

“Good morning, Pacifica.” As she marched right up to the blonde, she didn’t realize she was puffing her chest just a bit. She walked behind the register and positioned herself directly in front of Pacifica, nuzzling her side gently into Dipper’s by doing so.

He shuffled awkwardly and put another inch of space between them so their whole sides weren’t constantly touching… but only an inch.

“What can I help you find at the Mystery Shack today?” She stared her little blue eyes down with the best “customer service” face she could manage.

“Oh. Um, I’m not sure yet really.” Pacifica’s face stayed controlled, but Wendy noticed her eyes dart to the tiny space between her and Dipper.

Wendy’s smile got a little bit deeper.

_Yes. I’m here. I’m behind the counter here. Dipper’s behind here with me. We’re behind the counter together._

She hoped her eyes said that clearly enough. But to prove the point to herself more, she wiggled the edge of her shoe until it was pressed against Dipper’s. She felt him stiffen behind her, but he didn’t move his shoe away.

**_He. didn’t. move. his. shoe. away._ **

And she’s totally chill with it on the outside. And on the inside, her clitoris is doing a warrior princess battle cry.

“Oh, that’s alright. Just feel free to browse, and come back to the counter if you have any questions for me.”

Wendy blinked once. Twice. Three times.

_That’s a good Barbie. Just cool on down, and step away from the Dipper, and… why are you coming back to the counter already???_

“Oh my goodness, that’s adorable!” Pacifica’s voice got all sugary again, and it made the redhead nervous. “I didn’t even NOTICE that you guys are still doing that whole “hat switchy” thing! SOOO cute!”

Wendy’s “customer service plaster” cracked a little as her eyes flicked up to her hat. That she couldn’t see while she was wearing it anyway, so why did she do that??

_Why would she bring that up? Wouldn’t that be a bad thing to her? Not me?_

Wendy’s eyes widened as Pacifica’s face made a cutesy lip pout.

“You GUYS. You’re such cute friends. I’m so jealous of how cute your friendship is.”

 _O_.

“Trading hats like that all the time. It’s like she’s your second sister, Dipper!” She placed a delicate hand on her chest. “Oh, you guys are so lucky. I don’t have any sisters.”

Dipper shuffled next to her again, adding a couple inches between them. He let out a strangled chuckle. “Heheh, I guess, yeah. It’s a thing we do.”

Pacifica sighed a little theatrically, then brushed invisible dirt off of her mini skirt. “Well, I better get going. See you later, Dipper. Bye bye, Wendy.”

 _Great_.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

**Mid-September 2014**

**Dipper’s perspective:**   
_I’m going to die. My balls are going to become sentient and choke me, and I’m going to die._

This month has been absolute torture so far.

I see Wendy’s innocent smiling face tempting me every day at school.

It burns like sultry fire when she accidentally touches her elbow, or knee, or toe, or finger, or any part of her against any part of my skin in class.

Wendy’s perfectly fine shirts cover her creamy twin fawns beautifully and only show a speck of cleavage. But they turn into revealing blouses with voluptuous, heaving bosoms in my dreams.

And all the while, I can’t seem to stop my boners to save my life!

I’ve been forced to do everything I can not to touch her accidentally, just to keep my stupid hormones under control.

Like right now. Right now we’re at Gravity Malls and she’s sitting next to me on a bench, but her leg is touching mine. I’ve moved away already once and she scooted closer to give me a better view of her phone, showing me pictures of her dream vacation. Bless her sweet heart.

But what she actually gave me a better view of was the edge of her crimson bra as she leans over in front of me.

\- -. -. -. -. -

“Tambry and I already went to the Grand Canyon. But when I graduate, I’m definitely going on a long-term road trip to hit as many national parks as I can.”

Wendy’s arm brushed his as she tilted her screen in his direction. “Do you have any big trips planned?”

 _Don’t look at her boobs. Don’t look at her boobs_.

“Uh- no.” He pulls his eyes back up to her face and finds her smiling at him.

“No? You don’t know what you want to do after graduating?”

He blinks. “Yes. I mean, I think I’ll be staying in town for a while. Moving here changed things a bit, so I’m taking Ford’s apprenticeship after all.”

“Wow, man, congratulations!” As she beams at him, she shifts to face him more and settles her leg to rest against his.

_Yes, I hear you loud and clear, boner. I just don’t care about what you have to say. It was an accident._

Yes, a part of me… an ever growing part of me… imagines that Wendy has actually been flirting with me. That she’s trying to tell me she likes me. But it’s time for my brain to be in control and tell me to keep my dirty thoughts to myself.

He moves away from her again, putting more distance between them on the bench.

“Yeah-h-h. I mean, Mabel didn’t want me to take it before, because she would be without me. But now that we’re living here, she said it would be a good chance. That way she can finish high school and I’ll still live with her.”

He turned his gaze back to her phone.

“Hey,” she said softly. “Why don’t you sound so stoked about it?”

Dipper reached a hand back to rub his neck. “I mean, I want to be Ford’s apprentice and everything… but. I don’t know. It feels weird, putting my college career on hold. I made these plans and… applied to some schools and... I’ve gotten a couple of scholarship offers.”

Dipper felt her shift next to him and bump his side with her elbow. “Hey, using that big brain of yours. That’s great! But, you’re staying anyway?”

Dipper nodded slowly. “I really don’t want to ditch Mabel. She’d be devastated. Staying in town in the best choice. Plus I can learn a lot from Grunkle Ford…”

Wendy stays silent for a moment, then murmurs, “You know, as long as you’re sure staying here is what you want, maybe there’s a way to do both. Maybe you could stay in Gravity Falls and still start college.”

“Gravity Falls has a college?

“Haha! Definitely not. But there is one 15 miles from here. But that wasn’t what I meant. My friend Winstin, he graduated a couple years ago. He's going to college online.”

Dipper popped his head up to look at her. “What? Really? How would that even work?”

“Mmm, not completely sure, man. He needed to stay in town to help run his family’s business when his dad died. But he really wanted to go to college. So he found a tech college that offers online classes.”

 _Huh_.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tease for next time:

**Mid-September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Having Dipper and Mabel at school has made high school… bearable? Kids going through the halls seem to smile more often, now that Mabel has made it her personal mission to become EVERYONE’S friend. Dipper seems to be doing stupidly well in his classes. (Based on the marks I definitely did not peek at while the teachers were handing back assignments.)

And I’ve managed to claim my seat for the year next to his in our shared classes. Score.


	10. Canoodling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendy discovers Dipper has a secret. And it may or may not be a massive turn on.

**Mid-September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Having Dipper and Mabel at school has made high school… bearable? Kids going through the halls seem to smile more often, now that Mabel has made it her personal mission to become EVERYONE’S friend. Dipper seems to be doing stupidly well in his classes (based on the marks I definitely didn’t peek at while the teachers were handing back assignments.)

And I’ve managed to claim my seat for the year next to his in our shared classes. Score.

Sure, I’ve been hanging out with some of my other friends less, but they don’t seem to mind. Tambry and Robbie got back together and have been “making up for lost time.” Lee’s been attending some after school activities thing twice a week all month. And Thompson, man, I always kinda seem to forget about Thompson. Which I feel… a little guilty for…

So when he asked me to hang out doing some lame shed painting activity, I buckled and said fine. Thank goodness Mabel found us.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wendy sighs quietly as sweat beads at her temple. She uses the edge of her sleeve to wipe it away, steps back, and evaluates her work.

_Good. Almost done. Then I can make some excuse and finally go shower._

“Isn’t this great? Working with your hands. Smelling the fresh paint scent. Seeing clear progress. Don’t you just love paint jobs?”

 _No._  
“Sure, I guess.” Wendy dips in her brush for another layer of paint.

“You know, Wendy, if you like this, I have great news for you!”

 _What now, another shed?_  
“What’s that?”

“I just heard of this amazing job opening at this paint shop on the edge of town. It has steady hours and great coworkers. Heh. It’s me. I’M the coworker. We could be work buddies! You should apply. I’ll put in a good word for you!”

“Awe, thanks, Thompson. That’s real nice of you.” She plasters a smile to her face, thankful that he’s around the corner and can’t see her pained expression. “But I really don’t have time for a second job right now. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with studies and work at the Shack.”

“Oh,” she hears. “Well, that’s okay. But uh, maybe you could work-”

“Wendy!”

The redhead beamed at the sound of Mabel’s voice and happily turned around. “Mabel, my track buddy, what’s going on?”

After she ran over to the shed, Mabel doubled over with her hands on her knees, panting dramatically, and held a finger up.

Wendy smirked.

“Wendy, I need your help. It’s tragic.”

Wendy raised an eyebrow. “Mabel-level tragic? Or…?”

“It’s my fairy, Adelina Aubruetta Aianya. She’s so sad and homesick, and even my expert levels of cheerfulness aren't making her feel better.”

Wendy almost smiled at how dramatic she was being until she saw how put out Mabel was.

“A fairy? Are those things legal pets?” Thompson blurted behind them.

“She’s not a pet! She’s my friend!” Mabel crossed her arms.

“Oh. Well, you didn’t… bring it with you… did you?” His gaze quickly darted back and forth across Mabel.

“No, no. She’s back in her Mabel Cottage in my bedroom, trying to relax… I even tried shrinking down to her size and sprucing up her place. Nothing worked."

"Shrinking?" Wendy and Thompson chirped in unison.

Mabel rolled her eyes. "YES. Shrink-ing. I had to make another grow/shrink flashlight. I was DESPERATE. Have you ever seen fairy tears??? They're so much sadder when they're tiny!"

Wendy sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Hmmm. I can try to help cheer her up. No problem. We’re just about done here anyway.” Wendy plopped her paintbrush in the plastic tub next to her.

“But Mabel, are you sure you’re not keeping her all to yourself, all cooped up?”

Mabel shook her head sadly. “No, it’s not like that, I swear. She misses her family. She just doesn’t know where to find them. Adelina Aubruetta Aianya says all the fairies are just… gone.”

That perked Wendy’s ears. “What? That’s- that’s terrible… We should go tell Dipper. Maybe he knows what’s going on.”

Mabel frowned. “No, don’t bother. Dipper wouldn’t care about this stuff.”

“Pfft, what are you talking about man? He cares about YOU. Of course he cares about this stuff. He always helps you out when you’re in a jam.”

The brunette rolled her eyes dramatically. “He’s just being a butt right now.”

“Heh. Classic Dipper,” Thompson quipped behind them.

“He threw me out of his room! And then practically banned me.”

Raising an eyebrow, Wendy crossed her arms. “And what were you doing in his room?”

Mabel puffed out her cheeks and looked to the side. “Um, going through his phone?”

Wendy blinked.

“And maybe using my label gun to add “nerd junk” to all of his stuff.” After a moment, she groaned loudly. “Fi-iine. Yeah yeah. We should go ask Dipper. I don’t know what he’s going to do about it though. We got rid of the first three journals years ago.”

“And?”

“And I should go apologize.”

Wendy nodded. “Good. Just let me go shower and freshen up, then I’ll be right over to help you guys.”

As the two girls started moving towards the road, Thompson stumbled after them. “What happened to the journals? Aren’t they cursed or something?”

Mabel laughed, “No. Just cursed with nerd stuff. After weirdmageddon, Grunkle Ford was afraid someone would abuse the Triangle Guy stuff again. So I said he should chuck them into the bottomless pit. Who knows where they are now.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -  
 **Mid-September 2014**

 **Dipper’s perspective:**  
Just as I was ripping the last “nerd junk” label off of a bag, Mabel popped her head in my doorway to apologize. Which is nice. But then she immediately started going on about helping her with her fairy problem, so I felt like she just used it to get her way...

I was thinking of saying no and focussing on microeconomics homework, until she mentioned Wendy was coming. So I figured, it couldn’t hurt to delay a few more hours… right?

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

With my Pines journal 2, supplies, some experimental gadgets, and protein bar stuffed in a backpack, I headed down the stairs.

“Mabel, I looked at the map Adulyna drew you, and it looks like it looks like only a 30 minute hike.”

“Adelina Aubruetta Aianya,” Mabel’s voice corrected from the kitchen.

Dipper rolled his eyes, heading to the kitchen. “Whatever. But you should still bring some wa- - - ter.”

His feet stopped moving as his eyes took in Wendy, leaning over to get water bottles out of the fridge. Her butt-length hair was very gently waving down her body. Her clothes were… so tight. He could see everything. The outline of her bra, the edges of her ribs, the lace trim of her green panties peeking out the edge of her shorts.

_No, man. Look away. Just don’t look._

As she shut the fridge and moved towards him, Dipper’s eyes had a different plan. They trailed from her swoop neck t-shirt, down her body past her shorts.

_Shorts. Had he ever seen her in shorts? He wasn’t sure he did, because surely he would have remembered her having perfectly toned thighs and calves._

“Hey, man, glad you’re coming with us. Thanks so much.”

Without warning, she slipped her hands under his arms and pulled him into a tight hug. Dipper sucked in a sharp breath, and was pleasurably slapped in the nostrils by the scent of heaven… mixed with something new. Vanilla?

_Ohhhhh, now she smells like heaven is baking cookies…._

As she pulled back from the hug, dragging her arms across his waste a little slower than needed, Dipper felt heat flare up his cheeks. Her face was too close for him to think and her green eyes were blinking beautifully at him.

“Do you have any ideas?”

 ** _Oh God, yes._**  
He blinked and cleared his throat. “Uh, yes. Well, no. Don’t know where the fairies went.”

He forced his eyes to pull away from her face and his feet to move, putting a counter between them. He fiddled with the fruit, pretending he actually went over there for a purpose.

“We should undertake this methodically. Start where she last saw the others and see if we can find a trail.” He was twiddling with a banana, making sure his fingertips touched each brown freckle.

Mabel puffed up her chest, struck a Superman pose and barked, “Team Rescue Adorable Fairies, let’s move out!”

Puttering around in the woods in the middle of September was a laborious feat. It felt 20 times more laborious when you have Mabel with you, making you play 6 consecutive rounds of 20 questions.

Wendy and Mabel were striding ahead of me (and I was definitely looking for signs of danger in the trees, NOT looking at Wendy’s rear end in those shorts.)

The redhead gathered her hair in her hands and secured it in a hair tie. “Mabel, my track buddy.”

“Yes, my track queen?”

I furrowed my eyebrows at the title, but disregarded it when I noticed Wendy smirk.

“I love your passion, but maybe that’s enough questions for now.”

“Awwwwe…” Mabel slumped her shoulders.

_Does she have to be dramatic about everything?_

“No, no,” Wendy proclaimed, looking at Mabel with a small grin. “As your track queen, I command it.”

That made Mabel snigger.

“Now. Do you think you could take over map duty? That little fairy has ridiculously tiny hand-writing.”

Jazzed up by her new mission, Mabel contently snatched the map and pranced ahead.

Dipper released a tiny breath and checked his watch. They should have about 8 more minutes of walking if they keep a steady pace. As he dropped his hand back to his side, it grazed against the back of Wendy’s.

His eyes widened as he tried to process how she appeared next to him.

“Hope you don’t mind.”

_Not at all._

“I just was about done with that game 10 minutes ago.”

_Oh. Right. Is it getting hotter out here?_

“That’s fine,” I returned as her hand brushed the back of mine again. _Is she trying to walk this close to me? Mm, probably not._

I drew a blank when trying to think of a safe subject to talk about and let the bird calls take over for a couple minutes.

“So, I don’t know if you know, but the school’s having a fall semi-formal in a couple weeks.”

“Yeah?” he breathed.

“Yeah. Harvest decorations. Dresses. I feel like it’s the kind of thing Mabel would love,” she said evenly.

_Sure. And it would be like last time. Mabel would be dancing with all her friends while I watched all their bags and sat alone._

He fidgeted with his hands, accidentally bumping hers, then quickly pulled it back. “Yeah, yeah she might.”

“Are you thinking of going?”

“No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t sound… like something for me.”

She got quiet for a few moments, so I took that time to see how Mabel was doing. She was about 15 feet ahead of them, walking with her nose in the map.

When Wendy’s hand brushed the back of mine a fourth time, I felt an overwhelming urge to do something about it. So I kept my hands busy by pulling off my hoodie and stuffing it in my bag.

“ **Shut up**. Tattoos? You have tattoos now?”

_Bonkers. The reason why he’s been wearing long sleeves 24/7 since he got here. Now he’s really messed up._

“There- I’m-”

Wendy stepped in front of him, grabbed his left arm gently and ran her fingers over the designs. When her face looked back up at him, he couldn’t read her expression.

“An ear stud? Tattoos? What are you, some kind of player now?”

_Dang ears. Why aren’t you hiding under this ridiculously long hair where you belong?_

“Uh, no. That’s a definite no.” He wanted to pull his arm back, to hide it back under his hoodie, but he also never wanted her to stop touching him again.

Wendy raised her eyebrows and a shoulder, reminding him he still needed to explain himself.

“Right. So. Bill. Bill takes over people’s minds, you know? And my Uncle Ford had a metal plate put in his head as a precaution.”

“You have a metal plate in your head?!?”

“NO! No. Uh, just the stud in my ear, because of the Bills.”

Wendy blinked. “But. But Bill’s dead. So…?”

He cleared his throat and stared down at her hand. “Right.” _Fingers on my arm. Still on my arm. Please don’t stop touching it._

“Right. Bill’s dead. But Ford was telling me about how there may be other “Bills” out there. He did a lot of travels, even to parallel universes. It’s really fascinating, really. He wrote a lot about it in his journals! Which we don’t have anymore. Anyway… If there are other parallel universe “Bills”, or even any other being like Bill in this universe, then I don’t want to be caught unprepared, you know?”

He’s talking too fast. He knows he’s talking too fast. But he’s worried if he doesn’t get it all out in one go, Wendy wouldn’t get the full picture and think he’s paranoid and judge him forever.

“So we ascertained it was more the metal being within the range of one mesopotamian cubit from the frontal lobe, rather than specifically implanted in the skull, that acted as a sufficient shield. So…”

He chanced a peek up at her face. Her forehead was wrinkled and her eyes were fixated on something to the side. “So the ear stud was all you needed?”

“Yeah.” _Is she mad? Weirded out?_

“And… and the tattoos are… some kind of protection too?” Her eyes found them again, and the pressure from her fingertips increased, dragging beyond my forearm to my bicep. And his hormones tempted him to dream that she wasn’t just exploring his ink anymore, but instead admiring his new muscle tone he spent the last two semesters of PE in "weights" developing.

He felt his eyelids flutter and just succumbed to the fact that this was going to fuel his masterbation tonight.

“Yes,” I croaked, then cleared my throat as her fingers tickled higher and higher on my bicep.

 _Don’t flex. She’ll think it’s weird if you flex. Don’t-_  
He flexed.

“Yeah, just ancient protection wards against evil spirits and malevolent beings in general. As an extra precaution.”

She was silent for what seemed like an eternity, but was actually 9 seconds.

“Huh. That’s pretty ingenious, man.”

Dipper barked out a laugh, eyes darting back and forth. “It’s uh-”

“And it looks kinda raunchy.”

… What?

“IF YOU GUYS ARE DONE CANOODLING OVER THERE,” Mabel yelled from the top of a hill behind Wendy, “THEN MAYBE YOU COULD MOVE YOUR HAUNCHES OVER HERE ALREADY. I FOUND IT!”

Dipper winced. And before he could take advantage of Wendy’s perplexing disposition, she had dropped his arm and was halfway up the hill to Mabel.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -  
 **Tease for next time:**  
 **Mid-September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Tucked among the mossy woods floor were dozens of little mushroom houses, and stump cottages, and tree trunk stores, all making up what was left of the fairy village.

Wendy carefully examined the wreckage, just in case there was something or someone left behind. Meanwhile, Dipper was flipping through his journal, chewing on a pen, and squinting at tree bark.


	11. Spooky monsters are making a scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spooky monsters of Gravity Falls are making an appearance.

> NOTE: While the beginning of this chapter does have some fun flirting, most of this chapter is about interacting with the weird creature they find. I wanted to make it feel a bit more like Gravity Falls by adding some more spooky parts and mysteries. Nothing too scary though, I promise.
> 
> But if you’re more in it for the angst and upcoming sexy times, then this might not be your cup of tea. I just thought I’d give you a head’s up.

__________________________________________________________

**Mid-September 2014**

**Wendy’s perspective:**

Tucked among the mossy woods floor were dozens of little mushroom houses, and stump cottages, and tree trunk stores, all making up what was left of the fairy village.

Everything looked pretty shabby, to be frank. There were bits of tiny pots and swords here and there, broken doors and windows, and it looked like a ghost town. So sullen and dreary. Not a fairy in site.

Wendy carefully examined the wreckage, just in case there was something or someone left behind. Mabel was jittering all over the place, but trying to help look for something useful. Meanwhile, Dipper was flipping through his journal, chewing on a pen, and squinting at tree bark.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Mmmm. Umhmm. Mm. ….. Hmm.”

“Would you stop that humming already?” Mabel snapped uncharacteristically.

Dipper popped his head up, pen dangling loosely from his lips. “Sorry,” he muttered, then quickly got back to picking at the tree. “It’s just, this bark is weird.”

“Bark?” Mabel moaned.

“Let me just-” without finishing his sentence, Dipper started digging through his bag until he pulled out something with a bunch of wires. He strapped a fabric band around his empty wrist, strapped a second band just below his elbow, and started plugging in wires here and there. It almost looked like he was plugging the wires directly into his veins.

When he hissed sharply through gritted teeth, Wendy stopped what she was doing to get a closer look. Tiny drops of blood were splattered across his forearm.

“What’s that do?”

His eyes stayed focussed on the wires in front of him, then he squatted down next to the tree and closed his eyes.

_He, apparently, made absurdly handsome faces when he was concentrating._   
_Maybe._

“Prototype for a sensory organ enhancer,” his voice rumbled quietly.

When he wasn’t squeaking in panic, or talking as quickly as humanly possible to explain some complicated thing, Dipper had a calm voice.

And his calm voice was very **rich** and **inviting**. It was like a warm, strong hot chocolate, sliding down your throat. Like a velvety hot tongue, caressing the lobes of your ears.

“Woah.”  
 _How many bits of science fiction is this guy going to make materialize in front of me? How has no one else discovered yet that brainy is the new sexy? How long do I have to wait before I figure out if he likes me still or not?_

She made herself not pester him and wait. After a few moments, Dipper’s eyes blinked rapidly and he wiggled his hands, studying the tips of his fingers.

She knelt on the grass next to him and leaned in, peering over his shoulder. “Is it working?” she murmured in awe.

His chin immediately jerked to the side, grazing his prickly beard shadow scruff against her cheek. She could feel his breath on her face. It felt like she was breathing in slow motion while Dipper’s nose twitched wildly in her peripheral vision.

His voice dropped an octave when he answered quietly, “Yes. Temporarily. The prototype can only sustain power for 39.2 minutes at a time.”

She blinked. “Oh… heightens your senses for about a half an hour?... So, what did you want to… use it for?”

Dipper flushed as his chest started heaving deeply. But then he turned his head back to the tree and rearranged his limbs to a comfortable kneeling position.

“The tree bark in this section here is abnormal. Harshly frozen. But only in haphazard patterns across the trees between a range of 4-24 inches from the base.”

Wendy pulled her gaze to look at the bark.

“Mmm,” Dipper hummed.

“Dipper, did you find anything?” Mabel trudged over to the pair of them, looking like a cupcake princess who ran out of cupcakes.

Dipper didn’t respond right away, but first carefully placed small pieces of the bark on his palm.

“The fairies were scared away by a disturbing spirit,” he said matter-of-factly, using his deep chocolate tone. “The fairies left about three weeks ago, but the spirit has returned twice since then.”

Wendy was trying to process what they could do about a problem like that, when Dipper popped up like a spring dandelion.

“Clarification, the spirit has returned three times since then.”

Mabel squawked and clung to the tree trunk. “D-dipper! It’s- what do we do?”

Floating just a few feet away was a billowing translucent grayish form, dressed in rags. But instead of a head, a shocking key-like shape protruded from it’s shoulders.

Wendy felt a weight sink into her stomach as her eyes raked over the hideous creature. She squirmed closer to the twins.

“Wh-hat is it?”

“A category 7 spirit, the eternal key.”

As if hearing her cue, the spirit wailed loudly and swooped down to the fairy village, passing through a few houses before moving back up to hover around the branches. It gazed down at them, slowly circling the whole village.

“Who?” its wretched voice said.

Mabel whimpered and squished closer to the tree.

“What am I here for? Who do I seek?” Her voice was echoey and cold, like the song of a lifetime without sunlight.

Wendy swallowed, slowly stood up, and wrapped an arm around Mabel. “Come here,” she murmured, nudging her to the outskirts of the fairy village.

The spirit watched them, but stayed hovering above the village. “Am I to stay in torment forever? Never to know my fate? Never to find who must be found?”

Arm tucked tightly around Mabel, Wendy took a step closer to Dipper. Dipper’s steady gaze simply trailed the phantom wherever it went.

“I am lost. I do not know. Where can I be found? Who am I to seek? Is there no one here to find?”

Mabel’s shivering stopped and she watched the spirit with a pale face. “She sounds so sad,” she whispered.

“She is,” Dipper replied.

The spirit did another swoop through the buildings, then circled around again.

“The eternal key is relatively docile. She’s a soul forever looking for- a specific being. But she never seems to find him. But what is she doing here? They usually stay closer to the mountains and uninhabited areas of the woods. They’re naturally repulsed by the unicorns, gnomes, and other somewhat amiable creatures. I’ve never seen one this close to the town before.” His eyes narrowed as the spirit cocked her head and moved to hover closer to the teens.

“Are you the keeper of my locks? Am I to find my purpose?”

Dipper’s posture stiffened as his left arm slowly raised as a barrier between the spirit and the girls. The spirit glanced at his forearm, then away.

“No. You are not. You are just mortal. Not the something I seek to find…” Her key face twisted strangely.

Then she spoke rapidly, “But you know. You perceive the thing I need to find. I can see it in your gaze.”

“No, we don’t know anything,” Mabel breathed, making it flinch.

“It’s here. He’s here, you see him.”

“No,” Dipper barked suddenly.

“LIES!” She cackled, swooping towards them in a large arch.

The three ducked down, Mabel covering her head with her hands, Wending clutching to Dipper’s ribs.

The spirit moved faster than Wendy could track then, blurring past them, searching the ground rapidly. As it went, it babbled on in nonsense. Dipper barreled towards it, trying to distract it in any way. But within seconds, the eternal key shrieked an ear-piercing cry and burst through an object on the ground.

“I have found what I came to find!”

“What is it?” Wendy asked in Dipper’s direction, afraid of the answer.

He made his way back to them in three leaps and dove to the ground at her feet, flipping through his journal. “The petrifying rock. Together they release “KRXSKXL the Unperceivable.”

Halfway ripping out pages, he finally landed on the one he needed and started bellowing out a chant to dispel the ghosts. “... Goosus! Shamalaaan!”

The eternal key and the petrifying rock howled in unison, dissipating like water vapor. But it was too late. An energy pulse rippled the ground to the perimeters in the village, and a stillness fell over the wood.

Dipper froze, stick still, with his eyes impossibly wide.

Suddenly everything around them was chaos, and alive. The houses, the mushrooms, the tiny pots, the tiny socks, all wove through the air in disorderly currents. Mabel and Wendy felt themselves shoved forward by invisible claws, into the center of the cluttered storm.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Wendy’s hair whipped everywhere. When she finally spotted Dipper in the frenzy, he was standing still, with his gaze darting back and forth wildly. It was like he was tracking something.

“Just hold still,” he yelled over the wind. “I’ll try to contain it.”

But Wendy’s ponytail yanked hard to the side, as if pulled by a man, wrenching her into a tree. “Hey! What the ****? Show yourself, you little punk!”

Suddenly Mabel screeched beside her, frantically pulling off her beautiful hand-made blouse. “In there! Something’s in there! It’s crawling up my body!”

Dipper helped her yank it off and threw it on the ground, leaving Mabel in a spaghetti strap camisole.

Wendy pulled her axe from her belt and tried to chase after the blouse. A wriggling form scurried away under it, snarling and dodging Wendy’s hits, until it slipped out and disappeared.

Wendy freezes, looking back and forth for any movement, when suddenly her hair is being yanked backwards again. She tries to throw herself on the ground, crushing it under her back, but it uses her momentum to flip her over. She lands face first into the dirt with a painful thud.

She feels the claws scraping through her shirt, against her skin for only another moment before Dipper slams himself on top of her, ripping it out of her hair with a grunt.

Scurrying away and to her feet, she sees Dipper wrestling an invisible force to the ground, latching restraints around something she can’t see. Finally, he sits up on the ground, and wipes blood away from his mouth.

Mabel moves silently closer to her brother.

“He’s in here.” He pats a metal box that’s now jiggling on its own.

At that announcement, Mabel collapses next to her brother and hugs him snugly, while he pants heavily. “Oh, thank goodness. That was just awful.”

Sitting back up, she pulls a pink first aid kit out of her bag and starts wiping Dipper’s scratched up arms with a cloth.

“No wonder the fairies ditched the town. Those things were downright unpleasant,” Mabel announced, face furrowed as she started littering Dipper’s arm with Hello Ducky bandages.

Wendy breathed a sigh of relief, puttered over to them, and slunk to the ground as well.

“It was wearing this,” Dipper muttered, clutching something invisible in his hand. “It looks like a collar.”

“What?”

He fiddles with something and squints. “If found, return to Otaz the Unseen-,” he murmurs, then quickly freezes. “Oh, man, come on! Stupid, Dipper!”

**++POP++**

The calm after the storm did not last long.

Wendy felt the air shift around her, pulling into a tight whirlwind of glittering particles. With a loud POP that hurt their ears, the gravity suddenly felt a little heavier.

“Thou hast spoken the name that must not be spoken!” a deadly guttural voice shouted in front of them. “Thou hast summoned Otaz the Unseen! Make known your inducement or prepare for comeuppance!”

The three of them crammed closer together instinctively, trying to find the source of the voice. They didn’t notice the small cage was rattling incessantly.

“We have no need for conference with you, invisible wizard,” Dipper answered.

Mabel’s gaze perked up. “So there really is an invisible wizard?” She stepped forward, her eyes wide. “I HAVE to see this! Where are you, Otaz?”

“Mabel,” Dipper scolded, but the air already shifted in front of Mabel, lifting her from the ground.

“Hey, what gives?!”

Dipper and Wendy helplessly ran under her.

“Girl of human form, what reason have thou to address Otaz?” the voice sounded angry.

“Put her down, Otaz!” Wendy shouted to the wind, holding her axe and not knowing where to aim.

“Fool! Thou hast no strike!”

As he bellowed, Dipper moved to stand next to Wendy. She stepped closer until her chilled limbs were pressed against his side.

“No other wizard here to perform a wizzorcism! Hast thou-”

“Oooooowhoo!” the creature howled from the cage, distracting the invisible wizard.

The three humans looked towards the cage as the creature howled again, “Oooooowhoo!”

Instantly they heard a SNAP. And at the same time, Mabel crashed to the ground on top of the other two and the door to the cage broke off.

“KRXSKXL! My undersized unperceivable cherubical companion!”

As the three of them untangled their limbs, they heard an assortment of snarls and almost yip-like noises.

“What’s going on?” Dipper whispers.

Rubbing a bruising spot on her head, Mabel turns her face to the noise. “I think… Is that monster your pet?”

“KRXSKXL is my most beloved hellhound, separated from me for the last 17 centuries. Thy deed is great, girl of human form. The remuneration for KRXSKXL’s return is recognised as activated. Name your reward.”

“Oh, my olio. It’s his puppy,” Dipper griped under his breath.

Mabel’s face quickly changed to bubbly bliss as she popped up with a gasp. “I get a reward? I can have whatever I ask for?”

Wendy gaped, staring blankly as Mabel had a perfectly pleasant conversation with a demonic invisible wizard.

_Is Mabel just claiming that reward for herself?_

Dipper sighed and shook his head, slowly pulling himself to his feet. He brushed some dirt and leafs away from the new gashes on his arms, then turned towards her, offering her a hand.

She smiled at him and let him pull her up. Then before she could lose her nerve, she wrapped him into a gentle but firm hug and let her head rest on her shoulder.

As she felt his arms come around her, she smiled to herself.

Wendy placed a quick kiss on his cheek.

“Uh- what’s that for?” he spilled a little shakely.

“You did a great job, Dipper Pines. Thanks.” She let herself relish in his warmth seeping into her skin. His arms were shaking a little. Maybe he’s cold?

“Thanks, Wendy,” he breathed. “You did a good job too.”

“Group hug!!!!” Mabel flung her arms around them, squeezing painfully against Wendy’s new bruises.

“Guess what I got! Guess what I got!”

Dipper’s face looked green as they all released each other. “What?” he croaked. Immediately, a mechanical beeping went off and he sucked in a sharp breath.

Mabel grabbed Dipper’s shoulders and shook him. “We’re going to be pen pals!”

Suddenly, Dipper twisted sideways, collapsed on his hands and knees, and vomited.

As it turned out, Dipper’s prototype had a disagreeable side effect.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - -

**Tease for next time:**

**Late-September 2014**

**Dipper’s perspective:**

**BRING TONG!**

Dipper looked at his lit phone screen to see a text from Wendy.


End file.
